LV8 Bug?

[minnellac]

Okay, so I finally got around to starting a project in LV8, and I've run into what might be a problem already. I dropped a multicolumn listbox onto the front panel, and I can't move the column separators in edit mode. If I check "Moveable Column Separators" then run the program, I can move them, but this is really inconvenient as far as creating a program goes. Now, I am curious if I am the only one experiencing this because my LV8 seems to take a long time to start, and it says "Finishing Installation" every time in the bottom right-hand corner of the splash screen. Maybe I've got a corrupt install?

Thanks
Chris

[Darren]

Hi Chris,

I can move the column separators just fine on a multicolumn listbox I have just dropped.  I tried with both the Autotool and the arrow tool and it worked fine.  Make sure you're not trying to do it with any other tool.  Also, are you sure it doesn't say "Finishing initialization" in the corner (not "installation")?  Because mine always says "Finishing initialization" when I launch.

Hope this helps,

-D

[altenbach]

I also have no problems moving the column separators (I can no longer move the row seperators as I could in LabVIEW 7.1, but this seems OK to me. They autoadjust to the content ;)).

If you have very slow startup, it could be due to possible license manager issues, especially if you have other products that use flexlm. Have a look that the post in this thread: http://forums.ni.com/ni/board/message?board.id=170&message.id=157394#M157394

Good luck!

[minnellac]

Okay, here's what I've found. My column separators definitely were not working correctly. Darren, thanks for the "initialization" vs "installation" note. I swear, I read that three times before I noticed that they weren't the same word. It actually does say "Finishing Initialization" on startup every time, and it is slow, but that looks normal. A fresh startup after a clean reboot takes about 64 seconds on my Pentium M 1.6 with 1.5GB ram. Later LabVIEW launches were taking about 10 seconds. While this looks pretty similar to what other people are experiencing, it is really awful, and I hope NI does something about it. btw, thanks Altenback for the link, but I don't appear to be having any FlexLM issues. Also, if you uncheck "Autosize Row Height", you'll be able to resize rows again.

Now here's where it gets interesting, I was using PushOK SVN Proxy software for source code control. During startup this was popping up a couple of dialogs and I decided to turn it off to see if it would improve startup speeds. Turning it off does save me about 5-6 seconds on each startup, but surprisingly, it also fixed my column separator bug. Apparently something isn't working quite right there; I don't know if it is the PushOK software, or the SCC ties in LabVIEW, but it isn't right. I can use TortoiseSVN instead, so I think I'll do that.

Anyway, thanks for your comments guys. And in the future if you see something that seems buggy, try turning off your SCC. I will report this formally.

<Rant>While I'm at it, I'd like to take a brief moment to rant about the toolkit installers. The way they work is shameful, and someone at NI really needs to spend some time on them. It wouldn't hurt to tie them into the License Managment system, and provide a unified installer that can optionally place all toolkits into selected installations. I've never been so annoyed with LabVIEW as I was trying to get my various toolboxes to work with both LV7.1 and LV8, particularly as I had tried to show off some new features of LV8, and I had to wait more than a minute with an audience for the development environment to start, and then the required toolkits that I had thought I'd installed were not available. Not a happy day. </Rant>

Chris

[Darren]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the feedback.  You're definitely not alone as far as toolkit installer pain goes.  We've received a ton of feedback from customers like yourself who aren't happy with the way toolkit installers work.  And we are definitely looking for ways to address this with future toolkit (and LabVIEW) installers.

-D

[mfitzsimons]

I have the same issue. I can't move the column separators in edit mode. I have checked and unchecked everything.  I think the problem may of happened when I upgraded to 8.01.  Now I am in a bad place.  I need to resize my display but can't move the column widths.  Even tried a new VI, dropped down a listbox control and they will NOT move.  Does NI have this on their bug list? 

Matt

Certified LabVIEW Developer

[minnellac]

Matt, I'm guessing you are not using the Push OK SVN proxy, because removing that is what fixed my problem. I've been considering giving it another shot since 8.0.1, but haven't got to it yet. Anyway, based on my more recent experience with LV8 flaking out on me about once per month, I'm starting to think there is something in it that is really sensitive to the .ini file. For kicks, why don't you try removing it from the LV8 directory, and let it create a new one. Then see if the column separators work. I know it's a stretch, but it doesn't hurt to try. You can always replace your .ini later.

I was just thinking that that may make a difference because I think the information about the SCC is stored in the .ini. And maybe removing it previously forced a modification to the file, which cleared up my problems. Anyway, let me know if it makes any difference.

Chris