breakpoints

[hankypanky]

Hello, is there a way to disable the "feature," which causes LabVIEW to switch windows when a breakpoint is hit during execution (in effect, jumping to the block diagram of the VI that the breakpoint is located in)?  I can see how this would be useful, but it's often annoying, as I keep having to do alt-tabs back and forth between VIs or back to the front panel of the same VI.  I apologize in advance if this has already been asked (at quick glance, I don't see that it has).  Thanks.

[smercurio_fc]

In my experience, breakpoints work the same way regardless of the language or development environment. When a breakpoint is hit, the development environment switches to the code so you can see what's going on. Any user interface is suspended. In some cases (e.g., text-based languages, the user interface isn't even redrawn so you sometimes can't see values on the user interface. That's just the way breakpoints work. If you don't want it to stop, then remove the breakpoint. Or, if you want to keep the breakpoints you can disable them from the VI's properties (VI Properties->Execution, uncheck "Allow debugging").

[hankypanky]

I do want it to stop executing (I do need breakpoints! ;), but surely it doesn't "have to" switch windows like that...

[johnsold]

If you have enough screen space, move the diagram window off to the side where it can pop up without obscuring the front panel. I use a computer with two monitors for development so I can see front panels and diagrams simultaneously.

Lynn

[smercurio_fc]

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hankypanky said:

but surely it doesn't "have to" switch windows like that...

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If it doesn't, what's the point of the breakpoint then? Like I said, that's the way breakpoints work.

[hankypanky]

I mean, IMHO, the point of breakpoints is to stop execution and that alone; not to take control of your window management (in effect, forcing you to re-look at where you put the breakpoint)!  I know what the block diagram looks like where I put the breakpoint; what's the point of popping that window up?  If you had multiple breakpoints, it would let you know which breakpoint was hit, so in that sense, it could be useful.  But, if you only have one breakpoint, there's no real point to it that I see, and it's just annoying.  I can deal with it, but I'm surprised you can't disable this.

[Stephanie B]

Hi,

I would like to clarify - breakpoints are meant to pause execution - not stop it, and are meant for debugging. The LabVIEW help for Placing and Removing Breakpoints gives the things you can do with breakpoints - and one of the main things it should be used for is probing wires (which must be done from the Block Diagram). This cannot be changed because it is meant to help and it the purpose of a breakpoint. You are more than welcome to make a product suggestion for this. I hope this clears this up!

Stephanie

[smercurio_fc]

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Stephanie said:
breakpoints are meant to pause execution - not stop it, and are meant for debugging

This cannot be changed because it is meant to help and it the purpose of a breakpoint.

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Well said, and my whole point in the first place. I have never seen breakpoints work in any other way in any other development environment, be it LabVIEW, or Visual Studio, Visual Interdev, or MPLAB, or whatever. In fact, I don't think they should work differently because of what a breakpoint is designed to do. Sometimes a tool is designed to work a certain way. If it doesn't do what you want then you need to (a) understand the purpose of the tool and accept it and move one, or (b) reconsider what it is that you really want to do, or (c) find another way of doing what you want instead of changing the fundamental operation of the tool. One could argue that the user is basically saying: "Well, I've got this screw I need to turn and I have a hammer here, and I want it to work like a screwdriver, and I find it annoying that it doesn't because in my opinion a hammer should work like a screwdriver."