Best Satus Message Window?

[rex1030]

I am making a program that retrieves data files from remote devices via ftp and combines the files to form a large TDMS file. This takes a while for large files. I would like to make a status window (in a tab)  that I could print lines of text to stating what step of the process the program is at. In c programming I would just do a print out to the command prompt. Is there something like that in lab view that is a string-out like indicator that I can print text to that remembers past things printed? There has to be an easy way to do this that doesn't take up a lot of processor power or memory like using a shift register or something.

Help? I would like to use this sort of thing for other VI's as well.

Message Edited by rex1030 on 01-28-2009 03:19 PM

[TCPlomp]

My advise:

Create an XControl of string datatype.

Inside the XControl at a value change event you append the new value to the exisintg data (in the State ability)., Display the value of  this buffer on the facade VI.

Good for reuse, easy to maintain.

Ton

[smercurio_fc]

The XControl is a great suggestion for this. The one caveat I would mention is that it will still have to do memory reshuffling since it has to append a new string to an existing string. You seemed to want to avoid this, but I don't think there's a way to avoid it, though. As to this taking up a lot of processor power, well, that depends on the length of the string really, and how often you're updating it.

[Robbob]

For those of us who don't want to mess with Xcontrols...

Here is an implementation in 8.6 with shift registers and local variables.  Minimal processor use, as it only does string functions on a value change. Depending on how often you expect your status to change, you can adjust the while loop wait to happen more or less often.

May not be the best implementation, but I hope it gets you thinking in the right direction.

Message Edited by Rob_K on 01-29-2009 01:03 PM