Highlighti​ng with Auto Scrolling - Revisited

[Teo7]

I am re-introducing an existing idea which was declined, by offering a solution to the issue NI identified in implementing that idea.

The idea was submitted by Ali-Amin and I have copied the original text below. Read on to find out what is the solution I am proposing.

While using Highlight Execution for debugging, we end up scrolling the code to know which part of the code is currently executing, and loose context of the code due to scrolling. We could avoid this by letting 'Execution Highlighting' do the scrolling for us. Execution Highlighting with Auto Scrolling can be invoked on demand. The default behavior of the Highlight Execution will not Scroll. We should provide mechanism for users to disable or enable this while executing the code.

Also in case of state machine,

• Current Behavior - If one highlights in the middle of execution and when a sub VI is executing, then the highlight will reach the case only after the control returns to top level VI.
• This feature should also address the above mentioned behavior by switching to the case(state) in which the sub VI is executing.

Status: Declined

The functionality of this idea would start to break down for large VIs which it tries to address. If you have a large Block Diagram that has parallelized code then it would be difficult to have the view auto scroll the the code that is executing because it could be executing in multiple areas.

It is undeniably extremelly useful to know exactly at which part of the code the "highlighted code execution" is at each time.

NI have clarified why "Highlight with AutoScrolling" is not possible.

The solution is a floating window similar to the "NAVIGATION WINDOW" but a bit larger which would show a rough layout of the blocvk diagram and place a red dot approximatelly over all points of code execution. For multiple loops running in parallel, the execution navigation window would display more than one red dots. Clicking on the execution navigation window, would bring  in view the area you clicked on. The execution navigation window should provide a copy of the highlighted execution PAUSE button.

[garrettmarsh]

It sounds like what you are suggesting is an enhancement to the existing Navigation Window, rather than a new UI altogether.

The idea could be boiled down to "show trace dots in Nav window".

I would be in favor of this.

Not sure what you mean by "approximately over all points"... why not just show each dot as it appears in the BD?

[Teo7]

Not sure what you mean by "approximately over all points"... why not just show each dot as it appears in the BD?

I meant that when code executes in parallel, additional dots should be shown on the "Nav window", one for each  bit of parallel execution.

I agree with you that the framework is probably aldeady there, in the "Navigation Window". So if it is easier for NI to advance the existing Nav Window functionality to highlight code execution on it, so much the better.

[Darren]

Any idea that has not received any kudos within a year after posting will be automatically declined.