Use the wiring tool to swap inputs or outputs which have been wired incorrectly

[tst]

This is similar to the idea about moving items in the connector pane and is an extension of it for any input or output on the block diagram -

Often, you connect a wire to a wrong input or output. Today, fixing it requires wiring to the new location and manually deleting the old piece of wire. The only exception is two-input functions with both inputs already wired, where you have a keyboard shortcut for swapping the wires. 

A much more natural and general method would be this - if you use the wiring tool on a wire source or sink and then on another, the wires should be swapped (or if there's only one wire, it should be moved).

In this example I wired the 7 into the wrong input and I want to move it one input down, so I:

1. Click the top input. This "grabs" the wire, so to speak.

2. Click the bottom input. This moves the grabbed wire to that input.

Message Edited by Support on 10-22-2009 01:25 PM

[altenbach]

I would suggest to finetune this so we can only swap terminals of the same directionality. We should not be able to swap an input with an output, just input with input and output with output.

[tst]

I think there's already some action associated with clicking a source followed by a sink with the wire tool selection, but for some reason I can't remember what that action is. Hmm.

🙂

[altenbach]

> I think there's already some action associated with clicking a source followed by a sink with the wire tool selection, but for some reason I can't remember what that action is. Hmm. 

Since you would be creating a loop, it would cause the insertion of a feedback node.

(Which I think should NOT be the default behavior: It "fixes" potentially incorrect code by throwing even more potentially incorrect code at it. I can't remember a single instance where I wanted that behavior.)

Message Edited by altenbach on 07-22-2009 09:04 AM

[tst]

Oh, I was thinking of clicking on the input on another node.

[RavensFan]

I like the idea. But I do think it could lead to problems where you accidentally change connections when you didn't mean to because of getting click happy in the vicinity of node.

[GregSands]

One way to prevent accidental changes would be to require a modifer key - e.g. Ctrl.

[JackDunaway]

I have held back my vote for a long time because I didn't like the implementation. The action of clicking on the first terminal, then click on the second terminal just didn't jive. And remembering a key modifier is a turn-off. However, I like the concept.

What about this: instead of click-click, you click-and-drag the wire to the new location. Instead of clicking on the terminal, you grab the wire near the terminal and drag it to the new terminal.

Like a banana plug. Picture the old-time switchboard operators.

[tst]

Click and drag is an option, although in my experience forcing the user to drag is problematic, especially when using a touchpad. LV already has the behavior where clicking when the spool is the selected tool "tacks" the wire to the cursor, so I see no reason to change it. As Ravens mentions, twitchy fingers can cause this to be a danger, but I personally prefer it. Maybe an environment option?

And I'm pretty sure I don't like the concept of grabbing near the end of the wire. Clicking on any part of a wire which is not an endpoint already has an established behavior - it creates a new branch in the wire. Modifying that (even if it's only near the end) would seem to me to create confusion.

[JackDunaway]

tst, good point. Clicking on a wire already has a defined function when using the Wiring Tool, splicing. It would need to be the Select Tool. Using that tool seems more natural anyway, since I normally use the Auto Tool.

Also, even though sometimes I am forced to use my touchpad sometimes, I still don't like the click-click method.

[tst]

The select tool also has an established behavior when clicking on a wire (I will leave it to you to guess what that is 😉 ).

I actually prefer the wiring tool, because I also use the auto-tool and hovering over a terminal will switch to that tool.

If you want an alternative tool, maybe the hand tool can be used. Since Ctrl is already used to switch to a secondary action, this could be defined as a secondary action for terminals, thus providing the modifier suggested earlier. Personally, as I said, I think I prefer the wiring tool.