Programming atomic physics experiments for nonprogrammers

Nowadays, programming is an inevitable element of experiments in atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics. Often configuration of various pieces of scientific hardware and data processing should be realised by experimentalists who have limited experience and training in programming. In such cases, it is natural to choose a programming language, which allows to solve practical tasks right from the beginning and learn details of the programming practices in the process of the experiment development. Python and LabView are two common choices for such an approach. In the presentation, I am going to discuss some basic features of both languages, which are useful in AMO experiments and compare the realisation of some main programming practices in both languages.