Make the replacement of obsolete system VIs easier.

[altenbach]

Once in a while NI updates a system VI (new features, fewer bugs, etc.) but retains the old one for compatibility.  If we open an old VI containing any such VIs in a new LabVIEW version, we typically find a special marking on the icon (e.g. obs). It does not tell us directly what the newest version is and where to find it in the palettes.

(for example the context help for the obsolete 2012 riffle.vi does not mention the obsolence and opening the full help simply points to the newest help version (this might be an oversight, though. Some other obsolete VIs have appropriate help if I remember right)).

I suggest a "right-click...replace" option for such legacy VIs that directly point to the newest version so we don't need to endlessly search the palettes (well, I know where riffle.vi can be found, but I don't think the majority of LabVIEW programmers will find it on the first attempt, so this could be frustrating ;))

Idea Summary: I suggest to add a "Replace...with newest version" to the right-click menu of obsolete VIs.

Here's a picture how it could look like.

[dthor]

Could this be extended to user-made VI's? If so, how?

I think that updating the system VIs is such a rare case that it's not very likely this will get many kudos. However, if this was an option for user-made VIs, then I could see this being very powerfull. Of course, there would have to be some kind of standard for determining which VI is the newest version. Naming convention, class/VI version number, I don't know.

Nonetheless, it still gets my kudos.

[JB]

Very good idea !

[PNR]

I like this Idea very much. Having the ability to apply this to custom VIs too would be awesome!

[Mads]

Perhaps it could it work on deprecated property and invoke nodes as well.

"New version" might not always be an applicable name though. It might need to replace with something that was identified as the closest alternative, identified by NI at the time of deprecation...

(For now I guess we'll have to settle for this when it comes to such nodes).