Easier Access to Chart and Graph Help

[RavensFan]

Both Charts and Graphs (XY and waveform) have several different ways of connecting data to them, and the correct way depends on how many plots you are looking for and the original datatype of the data.  Sometimes you need to bundle data into a cluster, build arrays, or work with the waveform data type.  Context Help gives a hint at the different ways of wiring the data, but really isn't that detailed and sometimes seems incomplete.  There is a link to detailed help, but that tends to be a bit wordy, and really doesn't graphically show the different datatypes.

One of the more useful ways of seeing the possibilities is the Charts.vi, Waveform Graph.vi, and XY graph examples.  But context help only tells you about their existence and tells you to go look for them.  It really should provide a direct link to the example.

My proposal is to rework the help files and the context help for Charts and Graphs.  Let's make it easier to get to the useful information.  Don't force the user to open up the Example Finder and manually search for the example.  Link directly to it.   Get the all the different ways of wiring the data to the terminal clearly shown in the context help, rather than just showing 1 or 2 ways as it does now.  And rewrite the Detailed help as necessary.  Get more images of the datatypes in the file, and try to break up the file so that instead of one long string of paragraphs, it is easier to jump to the information you are looking for.

[altenbach]

I agree that the context help here is very inadequate and does not show all the advances introduced over the last 15 years.

Waveform graph: The help is still suck in LabVIEW 4 (?) where "waveform data" was not a unique datatype, but a cluster of "x0, dx, [Y]". The help ignores real waveform and dynamic data.

XY graph: Note that the "single plot" is either pink (top, cluster of x and y 1D arrays) or brown (bottom, array of cluster of (x,y) pairs), possibly confusing the newbie. Completely ignored is complex data and dynamic data (Note that the "xy graph" example has not been updated in 16 years(!) and dates back to LabVIEW 3.0. I completely ignoring e.g. complex as shown in the link!).

[RavensFan]

Thanks, Christian.  I had completely forgotten about the complex data.  And you have a knowledge of the history of LabVIEW that shows the help file has gotten kind of stale.

While my idea is for easier access to the better help for charts and graphs, in reality, it should incorporate an overhaul on the help files to bring them up-to-date.