Display VI version in title bar

[chilly_charly]

While helping in the forums, we regularly run into VI's saved under an older LabVIEW version, modify it and post it back, usually saved in the latest LV version. Soon after the original poster complains, asking for a converted copy.

Years ago, I even proposed a small starware utility (Get VI version) that returned the LV version any vi was saved in. Unfortunately, it stopped working with LV 8 (and didn't recover since... ;)).

I found several proposals for displaying the version number (for instance here and here), but they are related to the application version and not to the vi version. None corresponds to this very basic idea : as long as a vi has been saved in a version different from the one in use, display it as unsaved (using the usual star), with the original version number attached. Something like this :

Alternatively, when saving the vi, the programmer could be proposed to choose the former LV version.

[altenbach]

I bump into this on a daily basis and doing "VI properties...list unsaved changes...scroll...." is a bit tedious (and by the time I back out of these menus, I sometimes forget what version I just read ;))

Your suggestion seems like an intuitive and easy solution.

Should it report any recompile, even between minor versions (e.g. 2009 vs 2009 SP1).

How about if the VI is the same version but came from a different platform (Windows, mac, linux)

[chilly_charly]

I believe we only need a tool to warn us if a compatibility problem is likely to arise after a recompile, without cluttering the title bar (as with the "showExePathInWindowTitle=TRUE".ini command).

This is always the case when going from one LV major version release to the other (I still wonder why this should be technically required :o). Fortunately, in most other circumstances, there is no such difficulty, and thanks dontknowwho, the version numbering has been kept the same on every platform. Tracking platform specific operations would impose an additionnal analysis work, such as looking if a conditionnal disable structure has not been used to isolate the code piece, while a programmer usually knows enough to decide by himself (dll, activeX, 3D graphs...)

So... KISS. This should guarantee a rapid implementation of this suggestion.

[chilly_charly]

Since this proposition will not be implemented before LabVIEW 2011 (although it was kudoed by Jeff Kodosky...) ;), I have refreshed my old Get VI version here.