LabVIEW can do VISA and NI-488.2 directly; you don't need C++ or VB. First of all, you should see if there are instrument drivers available for your instruments. There are thousands of free drivers available on http://ni.com/idnet/. Search there first, because if you can find a driver for any of your instruments, it will save you a lot of time.
If you can't find a driver, you will have to send and receive messages from the instrument directly, and this is where NI-VISA and NI-488.2 come in. The simplest way to get started with this direct communcation is to use the "Instrument I/O Assistant". This is in your "Functions->Input" palette, and you can read about it in the online help. The Instrument I/O Assistant will bring up a dialog to select the device, send it a command and parse the results. Once you click "OK", it creates an Express VI on your diagram for you to incorporate into the rest of your application. I hope this helps you get started. Brian
