
You are here:	NI Home > NI Developer Zone > NI Discussion Forums

LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

Auto Indent Code

Status:

While developing code, having correct indentations is very helping in making sure you have all the right brackets and to see where your structures are nested easily. Sometimes, whether by copying and pasting or just rapidly getting out a section of code, a whole segment might have incorrect indentation, which is tedious to correct.

This is where an auto indent tool could be a big time saver. From somewhere like the Edit menu, where similar functionality is located in other development environments, you could select Format Selection to do a highlighted section or Format File to do the whole file. Then, CVI can format the tabs for you:

Although this is a simple example, auto indent becomes even more useful when you have multiple nested structures and decide, for instance, to add or remove another nested loop.

Status:

Better Documentation

Status:

I'd like to see better documentation online.

Currently, documentation seems to be spread over different areas: online, in sample code included with the development environment, in a downloadable help file, etc. What online documentation there is is incomplete - for instance, if I'm looking at the function reFFT (just an example, I know it's obsolete), the online help gives me the parameters and what they are but they don't tell me acceptable values, e.g. what is the largest/smallest value I can use for numberOfElements: 1 - 9e99999? Another case was with the NIscope driver NISCOPE_ATTR_INPUT_CLOCK_SOURCE. When I looked at the documentation (downloaded zip file filled with CHM files) there was a list of defined values but no desciption of what they were or were not for. Example: NISCOPE_VAL_NO_SOURCE ("VAL_NO_SOURCE")...I *assume* NO SOURCE is equivalent to Intenal but should I really have to guess when looking at documentation? For that matter, why does this information only appear to be available via downloadable file?

In another case with NISCOPE I found that the niScope_ConfigureHorizontalTiming expects a certain clock frequency (10 MHz) if you're using an external clock, but if you are using a clock frequency at exactly what you're asking for you have to set the attributes directly. I messed with this for a while before calling the help desk. The person at the other end was able to tell me how to fix my problem but he could not find documentation online (accessable by me) where this information could be located. It seems to me that the number of help calls could be drastically reduced if sufficient help were available online. Finding information on error codes is similarly lacking.

I also have a problem with referencing "installed" sample code in lieu of a online programmer's manual. I don't always run on my development machine. So I'm on my target system (that does not have the development environment installed) and I want to look something up...it's very frustrating to find all help on a particular subject referring to my development machine.

Align status bar information to UI control standard

Status:

- edited

Hi,

just a little idea for a minor improvement of the status bar: Right now, the coordinates of UI controls are displayed in different ways: in the popup window, the sequence is Top Left, while in the status bar the sequence is Left Top - this is somewhat irritating...

So I'd suggest to change the status bar text from

(23, 873) to something like

Top: 873 Left : 23

Thanks.

Improve Breakpoints Window

Status:

Summary:

Improve the Breakpoints Window, so that breakpoints can be more easily managed.

Description:

1. Change the Breakpoints Window, from a modal dialog to a dockable window (similar to the Watch Window). Debugging can be more easy this way.

2. Allow breakpoints to be grouped, disabled/enabled and edited in user defined categories. This allows users to easily collectively manage several breakpoints at a time. It also helps the user to logically group breakpoints, depending on various issues issues that he might be working on.

3. Breakpoints could also be sorted from a pop-up menu by filename, line, hit count, etc.

Breakpoints Window

Status:

Allow longer constant names for tabpanels

Status:

Hello,

right now, the length of the constant names assigned to tab panels in the UI editor seems to be limited to 10 characters, e.g. TABPANEL_10 does not work anymore.

I suggest to lift this limitation.

Status:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabWindows-CVI-Idea-Exchange/remove-restriction-of-max-21-characters-on-quot...

'Go to definition' / 'Go to declaration' should also work in release mode

Status:

It has been suggested much earlier here, but obviously passed out of mind:

When using 'Go to Definition' (CTrl+I) while in release configuration, CVI tells that no source code information was found for the identifier '...', because 'Browse information is not available in the Release configuration'... (still true for CVI2010)

This can and should be improved!

And it might be a good opportunity to also add the reverse process, 'Goto Declaration', suggested here

Status:

Fix 'Busy Wait'

Status:

Starting CVI the IDE uses cpu resources even if sleeping, i.e. doing nothing except waiting for user input. It seems that the IDE is also using the scheme of SetSleepPolicy...

Today most other software does better and I would like to see an improved behavior: use cpu (and thus energy...) only if something actually needs to be done

Go to Next/Previous function in source files

Status:

Using CVI I can't find an easy way of moving inside a source code file.

Based on my experience with other C editors, I suggest these 3 little features that I think are really useful:

a shortcut to jump to the beginning of previous function in the same source file (CTRL + PGUP, for example)
a shortcut to jump to the beginning of next function in the same source file (CTRL + PGDWN, for example)
the current function where the caret is, displayed in the toolbar. It will be nice if you use a combo so that the user can jump to a different function with a simple mouse click (see attachment)

I have thease features in an open source C/C++ editor (Code::Blocks) I use for other projects, and I think they're really useful to reduce the coding time.

When you have large source files with a lot of functions, with CVI is't difficult to easily see where you are inside the file; moreover it's quite common scrolling the file jumping from a function to another.

Attachments:

Status:

change TUI file format to xml (or create a new xui...)

Status:

I would like to have the possibility to store the uir-file not as a tui-file (old-fashioned ini file), instead as a xml file.

Status:

A new "Picture and Text" Command Button

Status:

In CVI there are two kind of buttons:

the classic text button (i.e. a button with a text where you can't insert an image)
the picture button (i.e. a button with an image where you can't add a text)

But if you try to design a modern interface (like the MS Outlook 2010 ribbon, for example) you need a button where you can have both

an image statically or dynamically loaded from file)
a text string localized through the UIR localizer

Even in the new CVI 2010 SP1 there isn't a convenient workaround (see here, for example).

In LabVIEW, otherwise, this kind of buttons can be easily created.

An interesting feature would be also a setting to set the text position referred to the picture (top, bottom, left, right).

Attachments:

Status:

Brave New World of WPF Graphics

Status:

Hello,

There are several quests for better graph and UI controls, and I support them all

Now, I was very impressed looking at the new WPF Graphic controls of Measurement Studio 2012 and would like to have similar features in C (i.e.CVI), too.

So in addition of having classic controls and lab style controls may by one could also add this new scheme of controls...??? The graph control in particular looks very promising, with color gradients and polar plots, both frequently requested features, here realized in a new style. Wanna have...

For a fist impression, see here

Thanks!

Improved/Accelerated Graphic Performance

Status:

We have recently dropped CVI (as of 2009) as an option for use with our many data visualization applications. The graphic performance is just too slow and clunky to put up with any longer and gets worse as we add features or try to make 'native looking' applications (that resize, animate, etc).

Things like dragging/updating cursors is noticably clunky when you have more than one graph updating (linked cursors across more than one graph).

Updating datasets in large tables is slow enough to watch it step through the rows. Even using suggest tips like using ATTR_CTRL_VAL instead of SetTableCellVal, when a large table has to update... it's painfully noticeable. Basically any operation that updates a large portion of the UI.

Another example, try to resize and move controls (as most other applications do) on the EVENT_PANEL_SIZING?

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that CVI doesn't use any graphics card acceleration? since workstation or netbook doesn't seem to make much difference in graphic performance.

Our clients notice when our applications look 'clunky' and 'slow' when compared to smooth, responsive apps/interfaces from competitors. It's often the little things that make a big difference in appearance.

Greg

Add callback events for MultiTouch Capabilities in Windows 7 to LabWindows/CVI

Status:

Please conisider supporting multi-touch screen gestures in a similar manner to the mouse events. Windows 7 Mulittouch capabilities are a good place to start. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/ee336016.aspx

The GUI of the future will most certainly be touch screens, and users expect to be able to use gestures such as pinch, fling, spread, rotate, etc.

Better "auto numbering" in UI editor when you copy and paste a selection of controls

Status:

If you have, say, three controls called MAX_1, MAX_2, MAX_3 arranged vertically. If I select them all, copy and paste, the new controls appear as MAX_4, MAX_5 and MAX_6 but in the wrong order to what you would expect.

i.e.

MAX_1

MAX_2

MAX_3

becomes

MAX_1

MAX_2

MAX_3

MAX_6

MAX_5

MAX_4

A similar issue occurs with assigning a group of controls to a control array, they always seem to be in the wrong order, usually reversed.

Multiple Y-axis [Ranges] in graph.

Status:

In few applications, while plotting multiple parameters on same graph,we should have multiple Y-axis insertion.

Like 1 parameter's axis limit is 0 to 50 while other has 0 to 5000 ,so when we plot both ,the change in parameter with smaller value is not seen properly.it look like plain line.

Also when we move cursor to graph it should show value at that position.

Status:

integrate tooltips into GUI editor

Status:

Hello,

imho the nice tool tips feature provided by the Programmer's Toolbox leads a miserable existence, because it is extra effort integrating it into a GUI.

I would love to see the tool tips integrated into the IDE, that is, when editing a control in the GUI editor, I would like to be able to also set the tool tips text and if it is initially enabled, just like it is possible to enter a control label text. This would include moving the tool tips from the Toolbox to the regular user interface library.

Many Thanks!

Status:

Add display format "SI Notation" to numeric controls

Status:

It has been suggested earlier (here) to provide the LabVIEW feature of a display format 'SI notation' allowing to directly enter 100 kHz (instead of 100000 or 1e5)

Status:

Better UI debugging: provide constant names

Status:

Hello,

I don't know if it is possible technically but from a user's perspective it would be convenient for debugging a program (in debug configuration) if the UI constants could be provided in the data tooltips, too. Right now, if something is wrong with my UI I will have to do a lot of detective work to find out which control / control attribute is the problematic one...

Example: Consider the code

SetCtrlAttribute ( panel_handle, control_id, control_attribute, attribute_value );

Right now, if I hover over attribute_value, the tooltip will display something like "attribute_value = 24064". Then I will need to look up userint.h to find out which attribute value this is ( ATTR_CTRL_VAL ). It would be more convenient if the tooltip could include this information, too, and display something like "attribute_value = 24064 ( ATTR_CTRL_VAL )"

The same holds for control_id, because a number such as 14 will not immediately help me - I will have to go through the corresponding include file to find the respective UI control (e.g. TABPANEL_2_NUMERIC ).

Improved tooltips: Global settings

Status:

Hello,

I am still happy that the tooltips have been moved from the Programmer's Toolbox to the UI editor.

Now when using them on a more regular basis it turns out that the programmer might grant the user the option to show / hide them. As a result, I would need to programmatically browse through all controls to change the respective parameter (the same is true for the delay time).

Hence I propose providing two new, more or less global attributes (these could possibly be panel attributes) that set the tooltip enable/disable status and the on/off delay times for all tooltips (on a panel).

This feature is not urgent as it can be implemented already now with some effort, but it might make code a bit shorter and simpler

The more 'urgent' tooltip requests are here...

Status:

HTTP Requests

Status:

Implement HTTP Requests into a CVI Library that can perform get, head, put and post functions for connectivity to devices that are wireless or connected to an ethernet cable. Also provoide a mechanism for the body and header from the HTTP Request message. Currently LabView has this capability for HTTP Requests but Lab Windows CVI does not. The work around solution is to use .Net Controllers for HTTP Requests for Lab Windows CVI. See example: https://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-24802

Status:

About LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

Do you have a feature idea for how to improve LabWindows/CVI? Submit and vote on ideas now!

Browse by label or search in the LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange to see if your idea has previously been submitted. If your idea exists, be sure to vote for the idea by giving it kudos to indicate your approval!
If your idea has not been submitted click New Idea to submit a product idea. You should submit a separate post for each idea. Watch as the community gives your idea kudos and adds their input.
Give kudos to other ideas that you would like to see implemented!
NI R&D will review ideas that have been submitted and update the status.

Note: the LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange is not the appropriate forum to submit technical support questions.

The LabWindows/CVI R&D team is committed to reviewing every idea submitted via the LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange. However, we cannot guarantee the implementation of any LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange submission.

Top Kudoed Authors

User	Kudos Count
RobertoBozzolo	8
Wolfgang	6
jay_tee	3
jdubs	2
tstanley	2

Top Taggers

User	Tag Count
Wolfgang	107
vix	59
jay_tee	19
gdargaud	10
Peter Cooper	8

By using this web site, you accept the Terms of Use for this web site. Please read these Terms of Use carefully before using any part of this site. Please go here for information on ni.com's copyright infringement policy.



My Profile \| Privacy \| Legal \| Contact NI © 2011 National Instruments Corporation. All rights reserved. \| E-Mail this Page