One thing that would be critical is that you cold only have a constant wired up to that input, otherwise the complier would have to show an error since the size of the cluster must be defined at edit time and can't be determined programmatically.
Ravens, Yep, I thought of that after I posted the picture. Maybe the wired input should not denote a datatype, so you won't be tempted to set the size programmatically...
Message Edited by Broken Arrow on 09-25-2009 12:03 PM
AQ had some good discussion 3 years ago related to this topic. Forgetting to wire the output size on an Array to Cluster is just a symptom of the overall hidden/forgotten/newly released/undiscovered node property setup issue. Thanks for getting our minds going, Broken Arrow, hopefully this will trigger more good ideas.
I don't think it should be a wired input, but I do like the idea of displaying the configured number on the function's icon. I could also be convinced that an editable text field on the function would be good, although I don't think this currently exists anywhere else. I'll kudo the idea anyway...if it gets enough attention, perhaps we could at least get the number on the icon at the very least.
The number on the icon (thanks Ravens Fan) is great, however, is there a way to remind us to set it? My intent with the wired input was so that you can't forget it. When we plop the function down, maybe a dialog box would pop up.
I would think that if we presented the number on the icon in an appropriate way, it would be pretty obvious that it is something that needs to be set...I'm intrigued by the possibility of making it an editable text field on the function itself. But with a wired input, we're changing compile-time behavior of a node with the value of a data flow element (a wired constant). There are certainly objects whose compile-time behavior changes when something is wired (Datalog File functions come to mind), but the valueof the wired object is never (to my knowledge) a part of the compile-time behavior. This is a precedent that has never been set, and I don't like the idea of starting it here.
Would there be a way to make the size of the function adapt to the size of the connected cluster output if the user connects one up before modifying its size?
