Existing code finder

[JO'S]

Hello,

I've been looking into a mechanism to search locally developed example VIs or find code from previous projects that is worth leveraging from.

Intended goal is to reduce duplication of effort.

• I've used the NI example finder in the past and was wondering if it's very involved to add example code to this that can be searched for on other machines by different users?
• One issue with NI example finder is that it often produces too many hits, many that seem of little relevance, is it possible to limit/filter the results (e.g. tags for local, etc.)?
• Perhaps, with the goal of leveraging existing code, it would be worth to invest the time into LabVIEW scripting, in order to produce a tool that programmatically search our code directories (for string constants containing SCPI commands for instance, maybe comment labels)?

Would be interested in any feedback/advice on these or other approaches that would do the job.

[Bob_Schor]

I believe the Example Finder works off a simple search of VI names.  When I write VIs, I tend to write "small" VIs that "do one thing" or "solve one problem", and give them a name that suggests what they do.  I also use LabVIEW Project to group all of the VIs in a Project together in a Folder Tree that mimics the Project Virtual Folder Tree.  So if I need a VI that I wrote 5 years ago that produces Gaussian random numbers, I'll do a File Search in my LabVIEW folder for "Gaussian" or "Normal" (for Normal Distribution), and if I'm looking for an example of recursion, I'll look for "Recursion".

This does require a little discipline -- you'll have to get away from VI's called "Main", "Sub 1", or (my personal favorite) "Untitled 2" ...

Bob Schor

[JO'S]

Thanks Bob for replying.

In my case there are a couple of teams that generally focus on their own needs at a given time, so often one team would end up reinventing the wheel in terms of a coding/development standpoint, resolving a problem or adding capabilities that one of the other teams has already solved or done previously.  We don't have a structure maintained in a single LabVIEW project.  We do have a revision controlled folder hierarchy.  Thankfully we are good at naming somewhat descriptive filenames which is a help, "Main.vi" being usually only used for top level / GUI VIs.  The different teams often coming to a different conclusion for the best place to put a respective VI once it has been developed, so there may be some difficulties there.

I was hoping for more responses.  I was thinking along the lines of having a tool that would allow for searching and for drag and drop or similar to speed up development in the future.

Have anyone had any experience with a situation as I have described?