Always Show the Connector Pane

[blawson]

My idea is simple: Put the connector pane on the front panel next to the VI icon.

Why: Right clicking to show the conpane means extra clicks that would not be necessary if it was always there.  It would also be solve the problem of saving the VI with the connector pane hiding the VI icon.

 

[hoayling]

Cool idea...Save developer's time to switch from icon pane to connector pane then back to icon pane again..

[Pcorcs]

Great Idea!

Perhaps integration would simply include the option to display The Icon, The Connector, or Both.

[Broken_Arrow]

Simple, obvious, elegant idea. Kudos.

[deyyoung]

Excellent idea!

I would suggest making the connector pane locked by default (ie, have it grayed out but still visible).  You can right-click on it to enable making connections.  This would prevent accidental mouse click issues.

[asbo]

I completely agree with iannicholson: sure I have the extra monitor space now, but it would still bug me to lose that real estate up there. Likewise, I always right-click to edit the icon, so that wouldn't bother me much either.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

Pcorcs wrote:

> Perhaps integration would simply include the option to display The Icon, The Connector, or Both.

That's exactly the sort of config option that is bad to add. Valuable options in Tools >> Options are impossible to find because of a proliferation of configuration options. It is good to add options that control the behavior of a tool (i.e., what happens when user clicks this button). It is bad to include options that control the accessibility of a tool (ie. whether the user activates the tool by clicking this button or popping up and hitting this menu item). Config options of the latter kind are generally a failure of usability testing. Some people argue that such options increase usablity because every user can tune the environment to their tastes. Multiple studies over the last few years show that far from increasing usability, they hurt usability because no two users can ever use each other's machines, and valuable behavior options in the Options dialog are lost among the sea of accessibility options.

I like the idea of always showing the conpane, but if LV R&D does it, we need to commit to it. Do the usability testing -- that will either confirm or deny the usefulness hypothesis, and if it confirms it, we should go for it. 

[maramosc]

Love the idea!

[blawson]

Huzzah!

[Kant84]

It could be very usefull to allow making zoom on the connector...