Make updating the GUI a priority in a near-term LabVIEW release

[Mads]

Not so much an idea, as a wish/plead/rant:

Please make the next version of LabVIEW a major update of the features we have available to create user interfaces.

2011 was the "improved stability" version. 2014 should be the year it became simple and fun to create user interfaces that blow everyone's socks off. I'm not even talking about fancy stuff, just get the basics right!  Fix the graph indicators, and provide better front panel scaling options - and that alone will make 2014 the best update ever(!).

I started writing a list of all the things I find bad with the graph/charts for example, and found out that it would be better to just do a search here on the idea exchange to see how many ideas mention graphs alone. 2390 ideas! (yes, I have not gone through them all to filter out the ones that do not actually request changes to the graphs, but most of them do, directly or indirectly...). My own little list started like this, in random order:

Graphs and charts

1. You cannot stack plots in any of the graph indicators, only in charts
2. Number of plots stacked cannot be varied at run-time
3. Annotation properties are only partially available programmatically
4. Auto-scaling cannot be restricted to one way-only, it's behaviour cannot be configured in any way
5. Legends, palettes and tools do not fit together to form an organized user interface, nor are they possible to detach from eachother to get more flexible designs/scaling for ecxample...
6. XY graphs become sluggish and almost unusable with large data sets, where alternatives written in other languages have no performance issues
7. Plot colors could automatically adjust to the chosen background color - suggesting unique colors for the added plots that provide the best possible
visibility.

8. Graphs on e.g. Google and Yahoo have tonnes of cool features like animated zooming, thumbnail graphs, highlighting of the plot you hover the mouse over etc. which provide a very interactive feeling, you can achieve some of this in LV as well, but it could/should be possible with little or no programming

9. To get charts to accept data with variable sample rate (delta X) is possible, but cumbersome and an almost hidden feature...

Mixed signal
1. You cannot set the group names programmatically
2. The number of plot areas is not configurable at run-time
3. You cannot assign plots to a given group programmatically
4. You cannot show the visibility checkbox of each plot etc.

And then you have the additional 2000 ideas...;-)

As for front panel scaling there are not that many ideas (naturally), but the impact/value of them would change every LabVIEW programmer's life significantly. We can stop spending so much time finding ways around limitations in LV, and start focusing on the actual goal of our applications.

Would that not make everyone's day?

[Mads]

You mean 2015 then? 😉

[AristosQueue (NI)]

No, but in all seriousness, I mean less than 2020. Perhaps significantly less, but that's the lowest bound I'm willing to state publicly.

[Mads]

To me it would be wrong to decline the idea then. As I stated in the first comment I never really expected it to be realised in 2014. The year will change, but the fact that is says 2014 is mainly an expression of the urgency I, and probably many of the people giving kudos to the idea, feel about it.

[SteenSchmidt]

One big problem though is that the idea+comments sums up to a vague "Much should be better" statement. We're not even only discussing GUI, but also data interface vs. the current BD/FP. There isn't much concrete to work with here, while many of the existing ideas in here (that we're also pointing at) are much more concrete.

It would be good if we had a way to prioritize our kudos. Sometimes I hand out a tiny kudo, while other times I really would like to add two huge ones. Perhaps this idea exchange should be a personal leaderboard for each one of us, such that when I wanted to kudo an idea, I'd place it in my own leaderboard above the ones I personally think are less important, but below the ones I think are more important? That way the kudo-contribution from each kudo-ist could be calculated rather precisely. I'm on my way to France for the next couple of days, but perhaps when I get back I should draw that up as an idea for the idea exchange itself. Where do I do that btw?

/Steen

[Mads]

The idea (as far as it can be called an idea, as you point out yourself there is a lack of good options when it comes to posting discussions like this) is specific in the way that it asks NI to focus on a specific side of its products, and goes on to specify some of the features and changes one might focus on first. The following discussion might have blurred the issue a bit, but not much.

I'm not sure if the right way to go is to ask it to be more specific. The GUI unfortunately has been neglected for so long that ideas related to it quickly encompass a great many things. General ideas might be paralyzing, but that is also what the idea points out; there are already numerous specific ideas available, and some areas (like graphs and scaling) stand out as obvious starting points. Unless other more general (!) plans for redesign, that will solve or invalidate these underlying issues are already in place, perhaps a post like this "idea" can stirr up something that the individual ideas could not?

[tst]

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@SteenSchmidt wrote:

Perhaps this idea exchange should be a personal leaderboard for each one of us...

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Short answer: read this - http://forums.ni.com/t5/BreakPoint/Idea-Exchange-Priorities/m-p/1092058#M11283

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Mads: Your thoughts accord with mine. I'll ask a moderator to retitle it and leave it open to accumulate kudos.

[pawel.ostrogorski]

All in for that.

Sometimes it is hard to make good gui in labview using graphs, trees and MCLs. When compared to .net our options are limited...

[Mads]

Changed to "In development" today? Exciting