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jlokanis

Make insert more context aware

Status: Declined

Any idea that has received less than 9 kudos within 9 years after posting will be automatically declined.

When I insert a VI into the error wire, I almost always want to insert something from the same palette as the VI that precedes the one being inserted.  For example, I usually want to insert a close or release function that is related to the previous VI.  Unfortunately the options presented are not very useful since they only offer up the Dialog & User Interface Palette, the Cluster, Class & Variant Palette and the All Palettes.  Why not include a shortcut to the Queue Operations Palette if the preceding VI is a Queue VI from that palette?

example

This seems like an easy one to implement and will speed programming for those of us who still like to use the right click palette menus to program.

 

-John

-John
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Certified LabVIEW Architect
4 Comments
AristosQueue (NI)
NI Employee (retired)

We pick the context palette based on the data type of the wire. If you had popped up on the queue reference wire, you would have gotten the queue palette. Popping up on the error cluster palette, the probablility of the next operation being a queue operation is actually fairly small -- an enqueue or dequeue is almost always followed by other code, not another queue operation (I actually have stats to back up that claim based on surveying lots of uses of queues in particular). We provide a palette based on the data type of the wire because at least then the palette is one that we know takes the data type that you just popped up on.

jlokanis
Active Participant

Fair enough, I guess I can see why the Dialog & User Interface Palette is included since that is where the merge errors function is located, but how does that explain the Cluster, Class & Variant Palette being included?  Is it just because the error wire is a cluster?

 

Also, when adding code via insert, I am willing to bet that the majority of time people insert on the error wire since that is common to most VIs and is likely to already be there.  It is less likely that you would have wired a more specific datatype, like the queue reference, to something already when you are still in the process of constructing the VI.  In my case, I am usually using insert to add something I forgot, which is usually a close, release or destroy operation so I don't waste memory.

In either case, I am not proposing to remove the current functionality but rather augment it with an addition to improve programming speed.

 

Maybe I am different from all the other LabVIEW programmers in the world, but this issue really does cost me a lot of speed when programming and I think would make a difference to have this enhancement.

-John
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Certified LabVIEW Architect
AristosQueue (NI)
NI Employee (retired)

> Is it just because the error wire is a cluster?

 

Yep. You might be wanting to unbundle that wire. In the case of "Insert", that might be a poor choice, but we don't special case the palette choice there.

Darren
Proven Zealot
Status changed to: Declined

Any idea that has received less than 9 kudos within 9 years after posting will be automatically declined.