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Proposal: Ship QD Object Shortcuts in LabVIEW 2016

One of the most useful features of Quick Drop is the ability to assign object shortcuts to commonly-dropped objects, like 'cs' for Case Structure, 'nc' for Numeric Constant, etc. LabVIEW development is accelerated considerably when you can type QD object shortcuts with your left hand only, leaving your right hand on the mouse.

I've noticed over the years that many LabVIEW programmers are not using Quick Drop to its full potential, simply because they do not use object shortcuts. LabVIEW does not have any QD object shortcuts pre-installed by default. I have provided my own personal shortcuts as a download on the Quick Drop Enthusiasts group, but users must somehow know about this page in order to take advantage of the shortcuts I have already put together, and they must take the time to make appropriate edits to the LabVIEW INI file to get the shortcuts onto their systems.

So for LabVIEW 2016, I am proposing that we ship a default set of object shortcuts, that will be very similar to the ones already posted at the link given above. More specifically, I propose the following behavior:

1. The first time Quick Drop is ever launched (in LabVIEW 2016 or later), it will check to see if there are already *any* QD Object Shortcuts defined in the LabVIEW INI file. If there are, we will not install any, and we will never do this check again. This means that existing users who already have their own shortcuts (as a result of copying the INI file over to LabVIEW 2016) will see no change in behavior.

2. If there are no object shortcuts present in the INI file, we will place the default set in there. Again, this check will only ever happen the first time Quick Drop is launched. We will store another INI token indicating that this operation has already taken place, so we don't ever do it again.

3. We will add a button in the Quick Drop Configure dialog to clear all installed shortcuts, for users who, for whatever reason, do not like the fact that we installed object shortcuts on their system.

I feel this will be a great change to LabVIEW, and will help increase adoption of QD functionality that I personally rely on hundreds of times a day. The only visible impact this will have on existing users (that I can think of) is that the Quick Drop window will no longer display the first palette items alphabetically by default...it will display object shortcuts by default (since object shortcuts are always at the top of the list):

qd1.png

But once you start typing (which we all do immediately after we press Ctrl-Space anyway), the list will filter appropriately, as it always has.

So I have two questions:

1. Do you agree that this would be a good change for LabVIEW 2016?

2. Do you have any additions or changes you would like to suggest to my object shortcut list linked above?

Message 1 of 15
(10,357 Views)

1. YES

2. I know I have some.  I will need to find time to dig up the differences.


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Message 2 of 15
(6,777 Views)

I like this idea. This is one of the first things I do in a new installation.

One suggestion I would make - prehaps the Quick Drop Configuration UI could allow a "Reset to Default" option for those who play with settings but need to be able to return to the original state.

Message 3 of 15
(6,777 Views)

1.  I don't see any problem with it.

2.  I update my shortcuts when it is convenient, or when I am reminded that I don't have them, so I wouldn't expect there to be shortcuts upon first run.  With that said, if you know how to add your own shortcuts, then you know how to get rid of ones you don't want (which most people probably won't do, and will probably start using the new shortcuts as they learn them).

What about checking for shortcuts added in a previous version INI file and then porting them forward?  That would make it even easier when upgrading to a new version.

Message 4 of 15
(6,777 Views)

I like this idea.

Suggestion for thought: A "merge/import" QD shortcuts between LV versions on the Quick Drop Configuration UI as well?

If we get good adoption, it should be painless to import a user's customized QD shortcuts into future LV versions. A typical LV user will update LV, but not be inclined to do the LabVIEW.ini copy/replace dance to import their previous QD shortcuts (this speaks to a larger problem of updating LV doesn''t automatically pull in the .ini settings from previous versions, but save that for another thread)

Here's the a little utility for fodder (snippet, needs VI analyzer for the "remove duplicate elements" .vi).  It merges all QD shortcuts across all the LabVIEW.ini files listed on the front panel.

Merge Quick Drop shortcuts.png

Message 5 of 15
(6,777 Views)

1.) Yes, it is a great idea.

2.) I do not have any additions.

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