Probe Chain (reduce number of clicks when creating probes on wire "rails")

[Petru_Tarabuta]

When debugging it's common to place a series of probes on a wire that goes into an out-of multiple sequential subVIs (a "rail" wire).

For example, in the screenshot below, we might want to place four consecutive probes, on each of four consecutive error wire segments.

Currently this requires four right-click gestures.

It would be useful to have a "Probe Chain" menu item (not sure if this is the best name, please suggest better ones) just beneath "Probe" or beneath "Custom Probe", or perhaps beneath "Generic Probe" in the Custom Probe sub-menu.

When clicked, the "Probe Chain" would apply a probe to each wire segment in a sequential or consecutive set of wire segments. This would result in the same set of four probes shown in the first screenshot. It would save a few right-click gestures.

Another typical example would be when probing an object or cluster wire.

Notes:

• I'd be happy if the propagation of the probes occurs only in the downstream direction. What I mean is: if the user right-clicks on the wire segment between SubVI B and SubVI C (screenshot above), then probes 6, 7, and 8 would be created (using the numbering in the screenshot above), but probe 5 wouldn't be created because it is "behind" or upstream of the segment where the action was triggered from. I'd be happy if the propagation worked in both directions, but I suspect that the implementation would be slightly simpler for just the downstream direction.
• In the first screenshot above, it would be ideal if the tool would create probe 4. But I'd be happy if the tool would omit creating that probe on the grounds that that wire segment is bifurcated, assuming that dealing with bifurcated wires would make the implementation more difficult.
• Perhaps pseudocode for determining if wire segments are sequential or consecutive (i.e. if they form a "rail") is: if a node takes as input a single wire of a given data type, and outputs a single wire of that same data type, then consider the two wire segments to be part of the same "rail". I wonder if the Quick Drop Ctrl+W tool already implements a similar algorithm, and whether parts of that algorithm could be reused.

Thanks!

[wiebe@CARYA]

As a workaround, I'd shift right click, select probe mode:

Then click on the wires. Press tab to switch back to the auto tool.

There you'll have your probes exactly where you want it.

It's not a replacement for your solution, but it's a lot easier than right clicking for every probe.

[wiebe@CARYA]

As a critique, "Automatic ..." usually sounds good in the idea phase, but in practice it usually turns out not doing exactly what the user wants, or at least not always. What happens with wire branches? Or when the output type isn't the input type? How does the tool know not to follow the error output? What happens when the wire hits a (multi frame) structure. Etc. Following wire flow isn't trivial.

You can actually (another workaround) implement this idea with this method in a DIY Shortcut Menu Plug-In:

You could even make a prototype and post it here to show off the idea.