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0 Kudos
technobum

disable scroll bar in block diagram

Status: Declined

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

I would love to have an option to remove scrollbars from block diagram.  I have been using LabVIEW since 2001 and I am constantly having to modify code from engineers who are using LabVIEW for the first time.  If there was a way to enforce the good practice of making the block diagram the size of a single screen, this would help me a ton.  I realize that developers use computers with different screen resolutions so the option to display scrollbars still needs to be there but it would be great if it could be disabled.
9 Comments
RavensFan
Knight of NI

No way.  Never.

 

First, as much as you might like to force people to always force people to maintain code to one screen, it isn't always possible.  Using multiple invoke nodes and property nodes, or activeX functions forces the code to get wide very quickly.  And having more than one screen isn't necessarily a bad thing, just like local variables aren't always evil.  It's more important to code neatly and modularly than it is to force a constraint of keeping it in one screen.

 

How would you handle these situations if you didn't allow scroll bars.

 

1.  You need to create some space in a middle of a small loop, but that forces other code that may be too close to the edge off the screen.

2.  You copy and past code from another VI, or front panel elements.  Have you ever noticed that the block diagram code sometimes ends up way off screen in a place you would never expect?  How would you get that back?

3.  You develop in a large resolution dual 30" monitor setup.  Someone behind you needs to look at the code in a single 19" monitor setup.  There screen real estate is gong to be smaller.  How are they going to be able to see the code that you were able to see in a single screen if they can't scroll to it?

Message Edited by Ravens Fan on 12-02-2009 04:17 PM
technobum
Member

In response to the situations described:

 

1. This would require some logic in LabVIEW to prevent the block diagram from expanding if scrollbars were turned off.

 

2.  Again, LabVIEW would have to place the code on screen when in 'single screen mode'

 

3.  This was noted the original coment.  Scrollbars would have to be capable of being enabled and disabled. 

 

Clearly, this mod would take some thought to implement. 

 

I would argue that it is always possible (albeit often inconvenient) to code a block diagram within a single screen.  This feature may not be useful to advanced LV developers but there is a tendency for beginners to grow block diagrams to many times the size of a screen.  This feature would simply act as a guide.

RavensFan
Knight of NI

technobum wrote:
3.  This was noted the original coment.  Scrollbars would have to be capable of being enabled and disabled. 

I'm sorry.  You did say this in the original message and I overlooked when I was thinking of all the ways this idea could cause LV users problems.

technobum
Member
Maybe the easier solution would be to provide an on-screen indicator that tells the user if the block diagram is greater than some configurable multiple of a single screen size.
muks
Proven Zealot

>>>Maybe the easier solution would be to provide an on-screen indicator that tells the user if the block diagram is greater than some configurable multiple of a single screen size.

 

 

Which can be ignored if need be right?

 

I agree with ravensfan.

technobum
Member

Yes, it should be capable of being disabled.  The guide could simply be a dotted line around a defineable pixel area in the block diagram.

 

I understand that it could be argued that such guidlines should be enforced by coding standards rather than by LabVIEW itself, but after having to deal with monstrous block diagrams time and time again, it would be nice to have something to indicates to the user: "hey, your block diagram is huge!"

 

 

Mads
Active Participant

Teaching people to break tasks into manageable and reusable VIs is something that should be learned directly I think, not indirectly by forcing a certain style on the code.

 

Sticking to one screen size is possible, but not always desirable. You easily end up modularizing the code without any other logical reason than to save space - which makes the code less readable than if all it took was to scroll horisontally.

 

Vertical scrolling is a thing to avoid - especially in combination with horisontal scrolling, but horisontal scrolling alone is OK as it matches well with the basic left-to-right data flow.

technobum
Member

>>>Teaching people to break tasks into manageable and reusable VIs is something that should be learned directly I think, not indirectly by forcing a certain style on the code.

 

I agree.  And this is the case with any programming language.  However, with LabVIEW especially, there is a tendency for new developers (often with little or no programming experience) to expand block diagrams in all directions.  The social engineering solution would be to ensure that everyone has a basic understanding of good programming practices prior to endeavoring to develop in LabVIEW, but the reality is that this is often not the case.  A simple guide would go a long way to helping new developers realize when the code is getting too big and needs to be modularized.  Note that this guide wouldn't have to be the same size as the screen.  It could be 2x the size or whatever the user (or systems engineer) defines.

 

 

Darren
Proven Zealot
Status changed to: Declined

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