LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

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Add official support for GIT

Hello,

because I had installed CVI2010 on a brand new Windows 7 machine, I was curios to find out about all the service processes running on the system.

It seems that there are quite a few NI services that start after log-on. Some of them seem superfluous, such as the Lookout Citadel service (no LabVIEW, no Lookout installed), but due to the lack of any information I did not bother trying to stop them

Suggestions:

1) NI should critically review the services and only start the services that are absolutely needed.

2) Services that are optional might be selected by a checkbox during installation or from the Options / Environment setting

3) NI should provide some documentation / explanation of each service and why it is needed.

Thanks!

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LabWindows/CVI lags behind the more recent developments in its programming language, C. At present, it only partially supports the C99 standard, not to mention the improved Unicode support of the current standard, C11.

Since odds are that Unicode finally will be supported in a future version of LabWindows/CVI, this might be a good opportunity to also ask for support of the current standard of CVI's programming language, C11, allowing the use of UTF encoded strings and also including updated libraries (e.g., supporting complex or long long) and debugging tools (data tooltips and variable view supporting complex numbers, for example). It also would help to improve C/C++ compatibility for programs that use complex floating-point values.

I really would appreciate it if the LabWindows/CVI project will show some strong signs of development and accompany us for the next 30 years, too.

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PID Toolkit support for native x64

Summary:

Display more struct member information during source editing and during debug.

Description:

While editing source code, CVI only displays the struct members, but no information regarding the type of the member (or declaration information, line file and line).

Add a tooltip to the right of the pop-up displaying the struct members in the source editor to display this information. Similar to this picture:

Also add support for displaying nested structs and even display the member values while debugging, in form of a tree, when execution is suspended (CVI currently only displays the memory address of that struct variable).

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Make cvi.exe a 64 bit application

It appears that cvi.exe can run into serious memory problems for larger projects due to a memory-hungry generation of source code browse information.

The solutions suggested (* don't generate browse information for larger projects or * don't use larger projects) are not too helpful. In my opinion, a much better solution would be to provide cvi.exe as a 64 bit application.

Because a crashing CVI is a serious limitation I hope this wish will make it soon.

Thanks...

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I recognized it's not possible any more to view a constant while debugging since CVI 2015.

Example: #define CONSTANT1 1

For example if I have a constant defined, I can then right click “view variable value”.

Normally CVI then shows me the value.

Since CVI 2015 this doesn’t work anymore. I also tried with CVI 2017.

In our code we use many structs where the fields are defined by a constant.

Now when the debugger can’t view the constant any more it also won’t view the value of the struct.

Example: #define CONSTANT1 1

Int struct[10];

struct[CONSTANT1] = 5;

This is the main reason why I didn't upgrade from CVI 2010 to 2015.

Longer panel name and control names

At the moment the maximum panel and control name length is limitted to 32, if you set them programmatically.

Because of longer customer system signal names it is not possible to use them directly as control names. If the maximum length could be raised to 64 or to the maximum label length, it would help to avoid to generate new control names and the additional mapping between costumer system signal names and the generated control names in the test environment.

Auto Indent Code

While developing code, having correct indentations is very helping in making sure you have all the right brackets and to see where your structures are nested easily. Sometimes, whether by copying and pasting or just rapidly getting out a section of code, a whole segment might have incorrect indentation, which is tedious to correct.

This is where an auto indent tool could be a big time saver. From somewhere like the Edit menu, where similar functionality is located in other development environments, you could select Format Selection to do a highlighted section or Format File to do the whole file. Then, CVI can format the tabs for you:

Although this is a simple example, auto indent becomes even more useful when you have multiple nested structures and decide, for instance, to add or remove another nested loop.

At present, autoscaling works with respect to the full provided data set, i.e. if all data are shown on the graph.

If say the X axis is set to manual scaling such that only a subset of all data is plotted, autoscaling of the Y axis still considers all data even if they are not shown, see the discussion here.

Hence it is suggested to provide an additional auto scaling mode which considers only the data actually visible on the graph, say VAL_AUTOSCALE_VISIBLE_DATA, complementing the current VAL_AUTOSCALE which actually is a VAL_AUTOSCALE_ALL_DATA

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Library to handle JSON data

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Mark files for compilation

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Add example code for XNET CAN FD frames

I want to be able to do the following:

Right-click on a control on my user interface and select “Add Event Case to Control Callback” (if a callback function already exists)
CVI brings up a dialog similar to what you see at Code>>Preferences>>Default Events to select an event for that control
Check the box for one or more events for that control, click OK, then
Have CVI find the existing control callback function and add a case to the switch statement for each event I checked

If you haven’t written any code in the callback already, you can just change the default events and re-generate (replace) the control callback.

However, if you have already written code for one event case, the only way I can find to add an event case is to do it manually. I go to Code>>Preferences>>Default Events or use the Operate tool to look for the constant name of the event that I am interested in, then I go back to my code and manually type out “case EVENT_CONSTANT_NAME: break;” with the name of the event and hope I remember it correctly and spell it right.

CVI is all about minimizing user errors and reducing development time by, you know, not making you type things out yourself, so I think this functionality would be a useful addition.

I have had severe problems in development, due to a high synergy between my lack of attention and CVI behavior in search/replace dialogs.

I am talking about the fact that Find/Replace parameters [namely search directories] are stored at REGISTRY level, so that they remain the same across different workspaces.

Having to work with different version of the same software product, I have found myself looking into the wrong sources, or even doing mass updates, due to the fact that different projects have identically named sources and includes, just in different directory trees, and rapidly switching from one workspace

to the next I didn't "mind the step"

My suggestion, thus, is to store find/replace parameters at workspace or project level, so as to avoid the aforementioned inconvenience

Following this idea already implemented, it could be good to add up/down keys to rows and columns selectors.

At present, if the table is in hot or normal mode you can click on a cell in the table preview in the Quick Edit window to select the corresponding row/column: going to editing them is made easy this way. However, if the table is in indicator mode you cannot click on the cella to select row and column. The same applies if you want to reach a column/row out of visible area of the table: the only solution to that is to double click on the column or row selector and type in the number you want. Not easy nor fast, and prone to errors. Much better to click on a button and increment / decrement the active column index

I'm thinking to something like that:

Summary:

Improve the Breakpoints Window, so that breakpoints can be more easily managed.

Description:

1. Change the Breakpoints Window, from a modal dialog to a dockable window (similar to the Watch Window). Debugging can be more easy this way.

2. Allow breakpoints to be grouped, disabled/enabled and edited in user defined categories. This allows users to easily collectively manage several breakpoints at a time. It also helps the user to logically group breakpoints, depending on various issues issues that he might be working on.

3. Breakpoints could also be sorted from a pop-up menu by filename, line, hit count, etc.

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LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

Add official support for GIT

Reduce and document the NI services running after Windows logon

Support the current standard for the C programming language, C11

More predefined command buttons

PID Toolkit support for native x64

Display More Information About Struct Members

Make cvi.exe a 64 bit application

support of Unicode character set

can not view constant while debugging since CVI 2015

Longer panel name and control names

Auto Indent Code

Provide new scaling mode (VAL_AUTOSCALE_VISIBLE_DATA) for SetAxisScalingMode

Library to handle JSON data

Mark files for compilation

Save as development distribution

Add example code for XNET CAN FD frames

Add the functionality to "Add Event Case" to existing control callbacks

Find / Replace parameters and lost time

Table editor: add up/down keys to row/col selectors

Improve Breakpoints Window