Intro to NI TestStand, Part 1, ancient history or untrue facts

Today, I'm going to start writing about National Instruments TestStand. Of course you can read all about it at the above link, but that's the NI take on things, and it's not my vague, rumored history. Overall, I'm not sure how long TestStand has been around but I know that I've seen some very old version's of it on test sets around work. It's now at TestStand 4.0, although 4.0 has only been out for a few months.

I'm not really sure of it's origins, but one rumor of it's origin is that a test group in a division of Lockheed Martin came up with an example of a standard structure for running tests. It was little more than a main program that you added calls to your own functions that made up the individual test steps. Basically, just your standard program with some standards on how it was set up. The rumor is that it was in the late 80's or early 90's that Lockheed was working closely with early versions of NIs LabWindows CVI instrument drivers. More of the rumor is that someone gave the structure and code to someone at National Instruments. (Note: it was not proprietary code, the rumor continues) NI took the concept and the early code, massaged it, changed it, updated it, worked with it and came up with TestExec 1.0. Little did anyone know how far it would go from those, rumored, early beginnings.

In case people reading this didn't know, Automated testing is typically made up of a series of test steps. Each step would conduct a specific test to check out a Unit Under Test (UUT). I'm sure I'll discuss testing methodologies in the future. TestExec 1.0 did little more than control the test execution steps but it did make it easier to set up your test sequences. But, NI doing the good job at incorporating feedback from the customer that they usually do, worked and upgraded TestExec 1.0 to TestStand 2.0. It began to take on a little bit more of it's modern look. It allowed the test developer to build sequence files for testing.

TestStand 2.0 was a quantum leap for TestStand. NI developed a basic TestStand engine to drive the tests and sequence files to be executed by the engine. All future TestStand versions were built on this TestStand engine and sequence file concept. It has continued to work and evolve over the years.

Well, that's a quick, vague rumor, or set of untrue facts, of the ancient history of TestStand. (Is that statement wishy-washy enough?)

I wrote this because everything that has come before now is history. And since TestStand came before, it has a history. Well, it's obvious my mind is tired from work and I'm starting to ramble semi-incoherently...or maybe it's because I was writing about history. Anyway, I'll stop here for now.

I'll write something more interesting about TestStand and testing tomorrow.

Have a great evening.