Feature > Display data over wires?

[Tikawilf]

Would it be possible to display the data over each wire when running a LabVIEW programm without having to place the probe where you want it or enable the highlight?

You could quickly look at the data flow over the program and save a lot of time debugging.

What do you think about this idea?

Thanks

[crossrulz]

Sounds like the Highlight Execution, which has been a part of LabVIEW for as long as I remember.

[jmorris]

I think the OP meant a new combination of retaining values/probing, and execution highlighting, in which the program is run at full speed, and all wires automatically show their last calculated values directly on the block diagram.  Seems like it could be useful to me, as long as you know the value you are looking at might have been executed a long time ago.

Not sure how fast it would perform, but it would certainly be faster than highlighting execution as it is today.  And it would solve an issue I've had in the past of having a dozen wires probed and having to keep glancing back and forth to the probe window to remind myself which number wire is which value.

Of course, displaying something directly on the block diagram is only feasible for simple values like numerics; not sure how a cluster of arbitrary size could be displayed, for example. 😉

[Tikawilf]

Exactly @jmorris. That is what i was try to express.

For arrays and clusters or other complex data structures there is always the alternative to use probe.

Display data over wires could be very helpful to see at each wire the data especially if you have arithmetic operations, work with references or queues at full speed etc..
For example, as soon as you start your program, you could see at the output of VIs if an error is already present.

You could also see, for example, if you are working with several loops, that for some reason some of them do not run without probing everywhere or running the program in slow mode using the Highlight Execution.

[Tikawilf]

something like thismay look better

[wiebe@CARYA]

If you turn on "Retain Wire Values", you get a tip strip with values when you hover over the wires. Only if the VI is in run mode.

Showing all values on all wires could be costly...

[JÞB]

That is not going to be possible. 

Anything that has to change what is displayed in the Window requires that the window display update must happen.  This REQUIRES  the UI Thread and the UI Thread cannot be threadsafe.  That forces all code to execute single threaded.  Just exactly like Highlight Execution does now.  

It's not a "bad" idea but there is no OS that could support the feature better than the existing debug tools do.

For whatever it's worth,  LabVIEW cannot change the speed of light in a vacuum or e=mc^2 either.