Conditional Disable Structure (symbol > description)

[ouadji]

                                      Project Properties / Conditional Disable Symbols / Description & Tips

                                       There is currently no way to add a descriptive text in this window

                             (in the project properties dialog > Conditional Disable Symbols category, then right-click the table: Description & Tips).

How convenient it would be to be able to open a new "Description" prompt so as to describe each symbol you may want to add for a given project or target,

and especially the possible values that could be paired with the symbol keys.  Upon editing a symbol, this description would help users and possibly prevent

them from checking out every single instance of the CD Structure to make sure the new symbol is the right one (espcially as there is no feature to locate the CD structures).

Summary :

            Add an editable Description dialog in the Shortcut Menu of the Conditional Disable Symbols table

[AristosQueue (NI)]

That popup menu should not exist at all. I filed CAR 520343 to get it removed. Thank you for the bug report.

[Mr._Jim]

Even though that dialog is not supposed to be accessible, I still really like the idea of documenting symbols.

I've learned the hard way to use them sparingly, due to the way symbols combined with conditional disable structures can lead to loathsome hacks and build issues. (a discussion for another day) However, I use symbols just often enough that I believe it would be valuable to have some built in mechanism to attach a brief description.  Is there already a way to do this?

I know what my few symbols are for, but what about the developers who will one day inherit my code?  (Yeah, I know I could always write up a document and include it in the project)

[fabric]

I agree with Jim. Simply adding an optional "Description" field to the listbox would do the trick. Much preferable to have the documentation here than in some other doc somewhere.

[ouadji]

AristosQueue .... it's not a bug report ... but a truly idea, a very useful new feature !

Even though that dialog is not supposed to be accessible, I still really like the idea of documenting symbols.

+1 ... thank you Jim, thank you fabric

[Intaris]

Another vote for adding this feature instead of removing the erroneous menu entry.

[Mr._Jim]

Well, I'm pretty sure I understand why AristosQueue doesn't want that exact dialog showing.  I'm guessing because it's a description and tip attached to that multicolumn listbox, and the right click event isn't being discarded.  (So, AQ, I'm not opposing you, nor am I disagreeing with the CAR you've filed.  )

It doesn't matter too much to me how the documentation is implemented, but I definitely like the idea of documentation.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

You notice I left the idea open. Normally if an idea is just a bug report, we close the idea. In this case, I just filed the bug report because I recognized that the idea was separate.

[ouadji]

thank you AristosQueue,

"I left the idea open ... I recognized that the idea was separate."

indeed, it's not "just" a bug report ... but a truly new feature.

maybe the picture isn't clear enough and leads to confusion

[altenbach]

Note that there are several relevant issues:

• The (faulty) popup is for a description of the entire "Symbols" listbox, not a description for any given specific symbol. Maybe there should be a third colum for "comments".
• Since this listbox is used as an indicator, we cannot directly intereact with its data and thus the entry to "Reinitialize to defaults" should not be there either. Even if there are symbols listed, this "Reinit..." entry does nothing even though the default state of the listbox is an empty listbox. The only way we can operate on the data is via the [add] and [remove...] buttons.
• Of course a better implementation of this tool would be to eliminate the two entry fields and the [add] button, make the listbox a control, and let us fill the fields directly. Why not?

[ouadji]

@altenbach :

Of course a better implementation of this tool would be to eliminate the two entry fields and the [add] button,

make the listbox a control, and let us fill the fields directly. Why not?

I like this "why not" !      

it would be very convenient and useful to be able to add a descriptive text for each symbols, but also for each symbol values.