Wire Entry/Exit to Structures From Sides Only

[Plato]

I will write this off to my **bleep** retentive personality, but what about an option that would allow wires to enter/exit structures from the left and right sides of the structure only? The left would be enter / the right exit. When the source of the wire is not visible, and the entry/exit point of the wire is on the top or bottom of the structure, I sometimes find it hard to see the data flow direction.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Suppose that there's a Tools >> Options setting that causes VIs to break if a wire comes in from the top/bottom. What do you do with a VI written by someone else when that VI loads on your system? Is the VI broken when it loads on your system? Does it trigger an immediate Clean Up Diagram automatically when it loads?

We could make the Tools >> Options setting just control the default setting for each new VI and save the particular setting with the VI (the same system we use currently for the alignment grid size). But then you have someone else working on the VI and their diagram keeps being broken when they draw a wire that comes in from the top or bottom.

These issues crop up any time we consider any option setting that affects legal diagram syntax. If what constitutes a viable block diagram changes based on which machine the VI is loaded on, you lose portability. If it changes based on which VI you're developing, you lose team scalability and sharability. At this point in time, I do not believe there are any options that affect whether a given block diagram is legal syntax or not (although some might argue that features that break when you make a VI reentrant or inline is nearly equivalent). Myself, I would strongly oppose any options setting that directly affected "is this a meaningful diagram", and I suspect there would be lots of resistance from others with large development teams.

What seems like a better approach for this sort of thing would be to add to the VI Analyzer a test that checks "do all structure connections enter/exit through the sides?" You would have passing that test as part of your check-in requirements for your development team.

Thoughts?

[jason_h2]

It could still be a perfectly legal syntax, just impossible to do from the GUI.

[Manzolli]

I suggest that can be added a Clean Up Diagram option to move all inputs to the left and outputs to the right of an structure, making all other necessary adjustements to properly fit all terminals and arrange the wires.

No sense in changing the sintax.

[Darren]

Any idea that has not received any kudos within a year after posting will be automatically declined.