controls and indicators

[rfeea1]

I have to convert an old DOS based 232 communications program over to something that will run on newer OSs. The program ask the device it is connected to to report it's configurations and current settings and they are displayed on the screen. With the DOS based program the user is able to change those settings just by tabbing through them or using the UP/DOWN arrow keys to move through each field, changing them and getting a real time update of the information displayed back from the device. With LV, I have to use several Read and Writes in order to display the same information. What I'd like to be able to do is to combine a control and an indicator into one function. ie., the data displayed in the indicator can also be changed by the user and then updated. This will eliminate the need for multiple Write/controls on the front panel and give the interface a feel and look the user is familiar with. So I guess my question is, can you combine a control for inputing a string and an indicator for reading back using only one control or indicator to do both jobs on the front panel for each of the configurations that need to be displayed and changed? I don't want the front panel filled with tweleve or more controls and just as many indicators. I don't care what I may have to do behind the scenes in order to achieve this. Newbie at this

[falkpl]

Using a control as an indicator is easy, just write to a local version of the control.

Paul

[rfeea1]

DO'H! Thanks!

[falkpl]

Tanks some getting used to the dataflow model of labview.  I have programmed LV for over 10 years and remember it was hard to think in the dataflow modfel fater programming exclusivly in textbased languages (c, c++ assemblers ....)  It was confusing to have real only and write only "variables".

[rfeea1]

Thanks again falkpl. Thats kind of where I am coming from with this and do find it difficult sometimes to switch my way of thinking.