topic Re : English lesson in BreakPoint

English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:17:32 GMT

When moving a label or a caption, it is attracted by its terminal when it gets close to it. How do you call this ?

I would like to post an idea (same effect for VI Polymorphic Selector) but don't know the exact term to use.

Like a label or a caption of a terminal, the Polymorphic VI Selector should be attracted by its VI when moving it.

Can someone reformulate this idea in better English ?

Many thanks in advance.

Re: English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:25:57 GMT

It would help if I understood what you are trying to say. What do you mean that the label or caption are attracted to a terminal? Is this a feature in LAbVIEW > 2012?

Re : English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:40:31 GMT

I think I would use "snap" or "auto-snap".

I wish polymorphic terminal snaps to corner and center position around the VI's icon like the label snaps around its control.

Re: English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 08:52:57 GMT

Intaris a écrit :

It would help if I understood what you are trying to say. What do you mean that the label or caption are attracted to a terminal? Is this a feature in LAbVIEW > 2012?

My English seems to be even worse than I feared !

What do you mean that the label or caption are attracted to a terminal?

Yes and I would like the same effect for the Polymorphic VI Selector when it is moved close to its VI.

Re: English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:00:01 GMT

JB aécrit :
My English seems to be even worse than I feared !

Your english is just fine I understood what you meant immediately

Re : English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:05:17 GMT

Merci TiTou.

Le décodage anglais-->français de mon codage français-->anglais semble avoir plutôt bien fonctionné. Quel algorithme as-tu utilisé ? Tordu de rire !

Re : English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:11:59 GMT

ma femme est britanique, mon beau-frère est néerlandais et ma belle-soeur est belge... donc je m'entraine pas mal à comprendre l'anglais des non-anglophones

Re: English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:16:33 GMT

@JB wrote:

My English seems to be even worse than I feared !

What do you mean that the label or caption are attracted to a terminal?

Yes and I would like the same effect for the Polymorphic VI Selector when it is moved close to its VI.

Not at all. Text was fine but the behaviour you are describing (without it being described in more detail) is not known to me. Hence my question whether this is a new feature or I have just missed something.

Re : English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:22:12 GMT

Again, is this a new LabVIEW feature? The reason I'm asking is because I've never noticed this behaviour before.

Irrespective of language, references to existing behaviour are always going to be laden with misunderstanding if you pass the message on to groups of people both with and without the knowledge of that behaviour. Those without knowledge of the behaviour will not understand the context of your message even if the language is technically perfect. Therefore if it is a new feature, you need to mention that so that you don't completely confuse those without prior knowledge.

Re : English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:25:55 GMT

Are you that far back in time Intaris?

Not sure when labels and captions started to snap positions around their controls/indicators but LV2010 has it for sure.

Re : English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:33:03 GMT

I'm WaAaAaAay back in time, around 2012....

Seriously, I have never noticed that behaviour and I curse LabVIEW on a daily basis because it doesn't do this for me.

Perhaps it's an environment setting?

Re : English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:37:58 GMT

Intaris a écrit :

Again, is this a new LabVIEW feature? The reason I'm asking is because I've never noticed this behaviour before.

Irrespective of language, references to existing behaviour are always going to be laden with misunderstanding if you pass the message on to groups of people both with and without the knowledge of that behaviour. Those without knowledge of the behaviour will not understand the context of your message even if the language is technically perfect. Therefore if it is a new feature, you need to mention that so that you don't completely confuse those without prior knowledge.

The fact that the Polymorphic VI Selector would act the same as a label or a caption of a terminal would be new.

But labels and captions have "always" be attracted by their terminals. "Always" = as long as I can remember.

Put a terminal on the front panel.
Move its label and show what happen when it approches the terminal.
Now put a polymorphic VI on the diagram (eg from DAQmx library). If needed, make the VI selector visible.
Move the selector and compare.

Re : English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:40:15 GMT

well it depends on a few things :

- your front panel - grid settings (LabVIEW options)

- your block diagram - gris settings (LabVIEW options)

- your grid size in editor option in the (VI properties)

hope this helps 😮

Re : English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:48:19 GMT

Unless I'm wrong, these settings don't have the least influence on how a label or a caption is attracted by its terminal.

Re : English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:51:17 GMT

OK, the missing information is moving WITH THE MOUSE.

I have become so accustomed to placing the labels and captions with the arrow keys, I haven't actually moved a label like this for years.

OK, now I understand the behaviour you are referring to.

Re : English lesson

TiTou — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 09:56:24 GMT

They control how objects snap to grid, not how label snap to their owning object or even to the grid... So you're right...(ooops)

I thought it would work for labels to snap to the grid because when grid alignment is enabled on the block diagram, the polymorphic terminal does snap to the grid. Not to the VI icon though.

Sorry for this confusion.

Re : English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:01:03 GMT

Intaris a écrit :

OK, the missing information is moving WITH THE MOUSE.

I have become so accustomed to placing the labels and captions with the arrow keys, I haven't actually moved a label like this for years.

OK, now I understand the behaviour you are referring to.

So we can now come back to the initial question : how to put this idea in a comprehensible English with the appropriate terms for this "magnet effect" ?

TiTou's revision will be a very good starting point.

Re : English lesson

JB — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:07:05 GMT

Finally, we have all learned something through this question.

I had really not imagined that it would create such an exchange.

Re : English lesson

Intaris — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:13:55 GMT

Here's my suggestion:

Subject: Polymorphic selector terminals should snap to VI icon when dragging

When dragging a control / indicator label or caption, if you move within a certain distance from the owning terminal the label will snap to one of a set of given positions (top-left, top-middle etc). Outside this distance (or if the user presses the spacebar to toggle this behaviour), the label can be freely positioned.

The selector terminal for a polymorphic VI should display the same behaviour with regard to the owning VI icon. A polymorphic selector is currently always free-floating.

Re : English lesson

crossrulz — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 11:31:51 GMT

@Intaris wrote:

Here's my suggestion

So post it in the idea exchange already so I can give it a kudo.