Save Option to Include Older Version

[SteveChandler]

We can save a VI for a previous version. If it is feasable, it would be nice if there was an option to include an older version along with the current version. For example I save my VI in 2013 with the option to include 9.0. This would effectively double the size of the VI. LabVIEW would open the newest version possible. This would be useful for uploading example code or posting it to the forums.

If it is not feasable then maybe Ton Plomp could implement this in his code capture tool.

[jcarmody]

Why wouldn't you just save it as 9.0?

You can use the Code Capture Tool to save back to 8.0 from 2011 (I've configured it to make 8.2) and the GetSnippet RCF plugin to extract it.    The only time it would be a problem is when there are features that don't exist in the older version, but this would foil your suggestion, too.

[SteveChandler]

"Why wouldn't you just save it as 9.0?"

Because I'm lazy?

But seriously this is precisely what I don't want to be required to do anymore. It is just kind of tedious and I would like it to be more transparent. I want to be able to edit the code in the latest version and automatically make it available in an older version without having to think about it and maintain another directory structure.

I don't know how NI would implement this or if it would be possible. Older versions would need to be able to open the file without knowing about this feature. But something tells me that a clever person with knowledge of the binary format of LabVIEW code could figure it out.

That is a nice tip about the code capture tool. I didn't know it could do that. But I would still like this idea to be implemented in LabVIEW until the code capture tool can encode an entire project.

[odessy27]

Probably this is far fetched, but is there any way national instruments could employ downconverter on their servers, so that every code that is uploaded, user will have an option to download in the original version the code is written or in the set old version say 8.3. (Lazier than you Steve.. )

  Irrespective of which solution they find, I think it will help a large community out there who are stuck with older versions to be a part of current discussions hassle free.

-Nilesh  

[SteveChandler]

It isn't really that far fetched. I think I have heard it suggested on the feedback forum but I can't find it. Darin.K actually did this.

[Darin.K]

That worked great when I had the latest version of LV, now that I am stuck with LV10 not so much. I think I have always wanted the inverse of this idea: let LV give it the old college try to open a newer version VI. If they get rid of the For Loop at some point I would expect trouble, but really how many VIs really use the latest bells and whistles as opposed to the bread and butter nodes?

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 3 kudos within 3 years after posting will be automatically declined.