Make Example Finder Resizable!

[TimmTheEnchanter]

I find the Example Finder to be a terrible eyesore.  Really.  It's to the point that I don't even like to open it up--I'd rather type in search terms on the NI Community and hope someone has posted the code there, or some similar code.

My major beefs with Example Finder:

1. Line spacing is inconsistent.  Some examples have long titles that extend onto a second line, some don't.  (See green in image.)  I would prefer to use the horizontal space on my monitor by resizing the window horizontally, so that everything fits on one line.

It's nice the word order is consistent among examples.  However, it's not that helpful because we can't make use of this consistency by resizing the window.  For instance--your eyes will dance around trying to find the differences between these next four DAQmx examples:

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Int Config

Filter- SCXI114x.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Ext Clk- Dig

Start.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Ext Clk.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Int Clk-

Accessory Status-PXIe-4300.vi

Now, watch how it all becomes much more clear when you allow the window to stretch out, so there's one example per line:

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Int Config Filter- SCXI114x.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Ext Clk- Dig Start.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Ext Clk.vi

Cont Acq&Graph Voltage- Int Clk- Accessory Status-PXIe-4300.vi

2.  Lots of scrolling to compensate.  Before I open an example, I try to glean some information from it by reading the "Information" section--but it's hard to keep track of things with all the scrolling (see red in the above image).

To minimize scrolling, we should have flexible sub-windows within the main Example Finder window.  Maybe I would want to give the majority of the window room to example VI titles, and less room to that huge "LabVIEW Zone" image I never click on.  Or maybe I'd minimize the extensive list of hardware the examples pertain to, and give more horizontal room to the "Information" column in the upper-right.  The point is, however I resize the Example Finder for my use, it should stay that way every time I load it up.

Here's hoping!  Please let me know what y'all think.

[altenbach]

I agree, this needs a major overhaul. It probably should look and act like a modern, dynamic multi-frame web page. 🙂

There should also be a preview window that shows a stamp-sized picture of the front panel and diagram for the highlighted example. We are visual programmers! I recognize code much more easily compared to a complicated description. 😉

(At the same time, there should be a major cleanup of the content itself. There are lots of very old and stale examples, some great examples and some very bad examples, sometimes near duplicates.)

[TimmTheEnchanter]

That's a great idea--adding some extra images of the front panel or block diagram.  Maybe it could even take the place of some of the real-estate on the left-hand side, which is currently occupied by "LabVIEW Zone" links that I don't think anyone uses.

[SteveChandler]

I love LabVIEW but it aint for her looks. It's what is inside that counts. I posted on the LabVIEW discussion board an idea that I was thinking of putting up here. An idea which is probably way too extreme to be taken seriously. Still no comments on it but maybe I will actually post it here anyway. What could it hurt.

The idea is to port the LabVIEW development environment, including the example finder and everything else, MAX, DETT, Distributed System Manager and EVERYTHING to Eclipse. But talk about a major overhaul. Anyone at NI think it is remotely feasable? I know it is possible but that is not what I am asking

[TimmTheEnchanter]

By the way, if you champion the idea of improving the Example Finder, see my other post about reorganizing examples for new users.

[JasonD_at_UML]

How about resizeable windows for EVERYTHING !?

Unless all of your LV code is right off your main drive (c:, etc.) it's very hard to read when it displays a file path for something 10 folders deep.

[donkdonk]

yes, yes, yes!

I understand that the default should be a small window, but please let give us the freedom to resize (make it larger ;-)).

And yes, allow this for all windows. I never understand why applictions have a limit on window size.

[David_L]

My guess is that it's a lot harder to make a VI resize all of it's controls and indicators in a way that doesn't look terrible.  Not saying it's not possible, just takes a lot more work than probably it was worth at the time.  

[JKSH]

Not just Example Finder... MANY MANY LabVIEW windows need resize capability!

See also:

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Expand-or-allow-expansion-of-NI-software-installer-GUI...

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Property-dialog-box-for-numeric-control-s-and-indicato...

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/All-windows-should-be-resizable/idi-p/1608142

[Darren]

National Instruments will not be implementing this idea. We are not planning on making further changes to the current Example Finder user interface.