Well I think you are doing down LabView. If you want a low cost LabView then get the Lego mindstorms NXT that is a modified version of it.
There are all sorts of drivers other than serial built into the language and lots of other drivers available.
all could be done in puredata or supercollider
You can do most things in most languages, the trick is finding a language that suites you. So don't do down user friendliness.