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Combo Box vs Menu Ring

I plan on using a drop-down control to allow the user to select an input (Duh!)
 
Ultimately I need a two-character string to represent the user's selection.
 
This is accomplished easily with a combo box where I can make the value a string that is not the same as the string displayed to the user.
This can also be accomplished with a menu ring and convert the associated value (or index) into a two-char string.
 
Does anyone have any experience with :
The performance differences with these two controls;
Advantages / disadvantages
Possible extensibility (upgrade) problems
 
Any input is appreciated.
Thanks
 
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Message 1 of 7
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Hi jspaarg,

To me it's more a stylistic choice. Their maybe some performance difference but I bet 9 out 10 times you wouldn't notice it.

You gave two perfectly acceptable ways of accomplishing the task at hand. It may be slightly simpler to use the combo box and with that being said I would choose the menu ring Insert Smilies

I go this way because I tend to use dialog controls in user interfaces and the ring is an option. Now I break this rule when I have to but my first inclination is to reach for dialog controls. I like the consistent look not just within the labview vi's I build but the consistent look with what the user will encounter in other interfaces across applications and within their OS. Bottom line to me it is being consistent with the UI that is important whether or not you use dialog controls accomplish this. Like I would probably not use a LV combo box right next to a dialog menu ring, don't make the user think. (side note a good book "Don't Make Me Think" on web page design but much of it extends to UI in general).

Cheers,

--Russ




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Thanks for the response.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "dialog control"?

Why isn't the combo box a dialog control?

 

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I think, Ross was talking about the so-called "system controls". (This would match his good answer.)
BR, Guenter
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Message 4 of 7
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And sorry for me being too fast submitting a post:

You are right:
The combo box is available as a system control.
The menu ring not.

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Message 5 of 7
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Dialog controls are those controls that are on the "Dialog Controls" palette. In 7.1, the combo box is not a dialog control. Also, don't forget the Enum control. When you wire a case statement to that, the names of the cases are the same as the enum labels.

Message Edited by Dennis Knutson on 05-10-2006 03:18 PM

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Dialog controls are controls designed to look like your OS's dialog controls. That is if you were to bring up a Open or Save As dialog within say Adobe Photoshop it might have pull down ring, listboxes, string control, OK button, Cancel button etc. You can find these exact controls within the dialog controls sub palette of the main controls palette within LV. The one caveat of dialog controls is you do not have much freedom in customizing them. That would defeat the purpose. The one advantage is that to the end user they are familiar looking controls that they have seen in countless other applications and system dialogs.

Of course if you are the one and only end user of your LV application all this does not really matter. Do what you like best. If you want purple OK buttons the size of your fist by all means go ahead.
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