Operator Overloading For Waveforms in LabVIEW 7???

[tarheel_hax0r]

As recently as Labview 6, there was a special VI for adding Waveforms, called "Add Waveforms.vi". It lived in the "Functions»Waveform»Waveform Operations" palette.

Compare the Example VI:

Labview 6\examples\examples\operations.llb\Add Waveforms Example.vi

Compare also the following Knowledge Base Article [which incorrectly claims to apply to "Version/Revision: 6.0 and later"]:

http://digital.ni.com/public.nsf/3efedde4322fef19862567740067f3cc/dd8d56cbb0b2b2f286256938005216af

In Labview 7, however, the old "Functions»Waveform»Waveform Operations" palette has disappeared. Furthermore, the new example

LabVIEW 7.0\examples\waveform\Operations.llb\Add Waveforms Example.vi

uses a generic numeric "Add" to ad
d two waveforms.

So: Has National Instruments switched to an operated overloaded "Add" to add waveforms? [Just playing around with the code, the answer appears to be yes.]

And: Is there offical documentation for this somewhere? [I.e. is there an offical document that says, "Hey guys, in Labview 7, we switched to operator overloading for Waveforms."]

Or: Is "Add Waveforms.vi" still there and I just can't find it?

Thanks!

PS: A little philosophical question: If National Instruments is indeed switching to Operator Overloading, does that indicate that LabVIEW is becoming a more strongly typed language, or a more weakly typed language?

[Greg_McKaskle2]

> So: Has National Instruments switched to an operated overloaded "Add"
> to add waveforms? [Just playing around with the code, the answer
> appears to be yes.]
>

Switched? Well, the discussion for how to package mathematical
operations on waveforms was ongoing. Since the operations don't have
identical signatures, in LV6 the Add operation wasn't combined with
numeric add and was left as a separate palette. After getting feedback
from the 6i release, the operations were combined into one palette and
combined in a way very similar to polyVIs -- meaning that the node
modifies its signature depending on inputs.

> And: Is there offical documentation for this somewhere? [I.e. is there
> an offical document that says, "Hey guys, in Labview 7, we switched
to
> operator overloading for Waveforms."]
>
> Or: Is "Add Waveforms.vi" still there and I just can't find it?

I'm not sure I have the upgrade notes, but this is typically where these
sorts of changes are documented. This is always the first document to
read when upgrading.

> PS: A little philosophical question: If National Instruments is indeed
> switching to Operator Overloading, does that indicate that LabVIEW is
> becoming a more strongly typed language, or a more weakly typed
> language?

In my opinion, the same. Both of these are known at compile time and
has no runtime interpretation. The diference is how they are presented
in the palettes. Too much polymorphism can cause confusion in reading a
completed diagram, but too little leads to an explosion in the functions
needed to build an application, complicating the palettes unnecessarily.

Greg McKaskle