Am I correct in assuming that you are talking about starting and stopping an Executable, possibly the Host part of a Real-Time application?
I'm sure you have noticed that there can be delays both when the program starts (defined as the time between when you double-click the icon for the .EXE and the time its Front Panel appears) and stops (defined as the time between when you push the Stop button or click Close Panel and the Front Panel vanishes).
I've always explained/justified this to myself by using the following reasoning (which may or may not be totally accurate).
For Starting, a major difference between hitting the Run button of the VI in Development mode and running the Application is that in the first case, LabVIEW is fully loaded (and that takes several seconds when we first start LabVIEW) so we "ignore" this delay in Development mode, but for Executables, we need to load in the Run-Time System (which takes a second or so).
As for stopping, all of the various independently-running VIs need to be stopped. If running an RT system, you may also have code to notify or respond to the Remote Target when shutting down, which can also take time. Out of curiousity, when you run your code in Development mode and stop it, does it seem to stop "instantly", or might there be a similar delay?
I find that when using Executables, the mere "sudden appearance of the Front Panel" and "sudden disappearance of the Front Panel" when I start and stop an Executable make me (more) aware of small delays that I overlook when I'm in Development Mode and always confronted with a "busy display". Seeing a Front Panel disappear is more visually obvious than seeing the background go from uniform grey to having the positioning grid reappear.
Bob Schor
