ni-visa-bindings

ni-visa-bindings provides raw Rust bindings to the National Instruments Virtual Instrument Software Architecture (NI-VISA) library. This crate enables low-level access to the VISA API for instrument control and communication, making it a foundational component for building higher-level abstractions in Rust.

Features

• Raw Bindings: Direct, low-level access to the NI-VISA C API.
• Compatibility: Works with National Instruments' implementation of VISA.
• Foundation: A base crate for building more idiomatic Rust wrappers or applications interacting with VISA-compliant instruments.

Installation

There are two ways to add the crate to your project dependencies:

• The first way is to add the following to your Cargo.toml:

[dependencies]
ni-visa-bindings = "1.0.0"

• The second way is to execute the following CLI command in your OS shell terminal:

cargo add ni-visa-bindings

You will also need to have the NI-VISA library installed on your system.

• Download it from NI-VISA Downloads.
• Ensure the library is accessible in your system's library path.

Usage

This crate exposes the raw bindings to the NI-VISA library. Below is an example of how to initialize a VISA session using these bindings:

use ni_visa_bindings::*;

fn main() {
    unsafe {
        let mut default_rm: ViSession = 0;
        let status = viOpenDefaultRM(&mut default_rm);

        if status < VI_SUCCESS {
            eprintln!("Failed to open default resource manager. Status: {}", status);
        } else {
            println!("Default resource manager opened successfully.");
            // Perform additional VISA operations here...

            // Close the resource manager
            viClose(default_rm);
        }
    }
}

Additionally, you can refer to the tests provided in the source code as an excellent knowledge source. These tests demonstrate various usages of the bindings and serve as practical examples to guide development.

Prerequisites

• Rust: Ensure you have the Rust toolchain installed. You can get it from rustup.
• NI-VISA: Install the NI-VISA library from National Instruments.

Documentation

Full API documentation is available on docs.rs.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! If you encounter a bug, have a feature request, or want to improve the code, feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request.

Development Setup

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/ni-visa-bindings.git
   cd ni-visa-bindings
   

2. Build the project:

   cargo build
   

3. Run tests:

   cargo test
   

Roadmap

  |                                  | Implemented in    | Implemented in  |
  | Feature                          | Original Library  | crate           |
  |----------------------------------|-------------------|-----------------|
  | Provide the same functionality,  |                   |                 |
  | as in original library           |      ✅           |        ✅        |
  | Documentation                    |      ✅           |        ⬜        |
  | Expanded test coverage           |      ⬜           |        ⬜        |
  | Add more comprehancive examples  |      ⬜           |        ⬜        |

Contributions and suggestions for the roadmap are welcome! Feel free to open an issue or discussion.

License

This project is licensed under the Unlicense License.

Acknowledgments

• National Instruments for providing the NI-VISA library and documentation.
• The Rust community for supporting FFI and low-level library development.

Disclaimer

This crate is not officially affiliated with or endorsed by National Instruments. It is an independent open-source project.