Darren's Weekly Nugget 01/16/2007

[Darren]

Hi all,

Did you realize that exactly one year ago today, I posted my first weekly nugget?  Well, I've decided one year is a good stopping point...this is going to be my last weekly nugget.  It's been a lot of fun helping you guys out with little tips and tricks I've come across in my 8 years of LabVIEW development (this week I also celebrate my 8th anniversary at NI).  For my final nugget, I just have some simple advice.  One of the coolest things about LabVIEW is the ease with which we can come up with solutions to problems.  On the other hand, there are very complicated approaches to problems that are often warranted, depending on the complexity of the desired application.  I really admire my LabVIEW colleagues who are able to come up with extremely creative, extremely complicated ways to solve problems that I never could have thought of.  However, I think we should always devote a little time in the beginning to trying to discover the *simplest* solution to a problem.  You may come up with some corner cases that your simple solution doesn't cover, but don't forget to weigh the added time and effort you have to put in to address the corner cases, and also don't forget the added risk of new bugs you'll get when implementing the complicated solution.  It may sound kinda silly to mention this as a nugget, but I have definitely seen my share of apps that took a *way* too complicated approach to solve a fairly simple problem, when the most cost-effective, robust solution would have been quite a bit simpler.  Anyway, it's general advice, and some may not agree, but it's served me well so far in my LabVIEW career. 

So that's all folks.  But don't worry, I'll still be around... 🙂

-D

P.S. - Check out past nuggets here.

[tbob]

What no more nuggets?  First you get us addicted, then you expect us to go cold turkey?    Shame on you Darren....   Oooohhhh, ooowwwww, the agony.....

[Chris_Co]

Darren,

It is indeed a sad day.  I personally have learned volumes from your nuggets, what a shame to not have that resource to look foreward to anymore. Most of the time the advice was accompanied by dialog and links from the community that opened many avenues to approach problems with.  I know I'm being selfish, but maybe a kidnapping is in order and the kidnappers could trade you a nugget (food) for nugget.

Please think it over again and come to the only real acceptable answer.  Don't make me beg.

Chris Co.

[Matthew_Williams]

Thanks for supplying the nuggets for so long.  Sure will miss them, they were a
nice contribution to the community.  How about monthly, or even just randomly?

Anyway, thanks again.

Matt

[Joe_H]

Darren,

Thanks for all the effort in putting together so many nuggets. I have enjoyed and looked forward to your weekly post. It is a shame to blast onto the scene with some great stuff and with the same gust of wind be gone again. Don't make us go cold turkey. Allow someone with more time to take your place. Although no person could replace the great Darren. They tried it on Bewitched and it did not work for them either. So now that you know you are irreplaceable PLEASE,PLEASE,PLEASE do not make us go cold turkey on the nuggets. Hey even Mcdonalds brings back the ribs for a period of time.

Thanks again for all you have done you have served the community well.

Hey I wonder if NI is going to stop sending us little trinkets and pay for the medication we are going to need for the withdraws.

[altenbach]

We Want Nuggets!! We Want Nuggets!!

Join the movement...

Message Edited by altenbach on 01-16-2007 02:08 PM

[sth]

Darren,

Thanks for the bits of insight every Monday. I realize the work involved to meet that continual deadline. There are many of us who appreciated each and every nugget. They were all gold.

Take a break for awhile!

Apropos todays nugget:

There was a book quaintly named "XXX With Style: Programming Proverbs" that is long out of print and out of date, where XXX was Pascal, PL1, FORTRAN, COBOL, (and who knows, lisp, algol, APL ....). It had some very similar advice about general prinicpals, that if you are getting into more and more complication, you probably have a bad design.

Since you have already done most of the algorithms, don't be afraid to rip it all out, redesign and start over. I tried to find a summary on line but all I found was

Programming Proverbs in Zhurnal Wiki
and the ever popular Klingon Programming Proverbs. And my favorite reference that shows what is to be avoided like the plague is the Big Ball Of Mud!!!! This last should be read at least once per year!!

Thanks,
Scott

Message Edited by sth on 01-16-2007 08:25 PM

[devchander]

Hoping that you will only take a 'break' and after a few days, consider coming back  with more of those cool nuggets

Your weekly posts were awaited and highly appreciated by all of us

The LabVIEW community is enriched with your nuggets

Thank you, Darren

[TiTou]

Hello Darren,

Thanks a lot for one year of weekly nugget !
No doubt we will miss them...

About the last one "keep it simple", I can only confirm that this advice is really to be repeated every morning before launching LV !

Starting a project too fast, spending less time than necessary on how to implement all the functionnalities will almost always lead to an unapropriated architecture ; when adding a small feature becomes a nightmare and requires complicated code it is generally the moment to wonder if a different architecture could allow smaller code.

As a pretty unexperienced developper I found myself in such situations a couple of times

[sth]

TiTou,

For another take on this keep it simple, or rather "think before wiring" see Christina's blog

Eyes on VIs

-Scott