Very simple improvement on Block diagram clean up OPTIONS

[EngrStudent]

Background:

I am moving from MatLab/R to LabVIEW and the "documentation of blocks" is a challenge.  I have resorted to single panes of flat sequences to group and retain relationships that define an element of function.  

My goal there is entirely to partially resist the confusing effect of "clean up" on these elements of function.  I can then justify and more completely describe using labels for the components and the "documentation" for the sequence chunk.  

Suggestion:

If you look at the above diagram, the wires overlap the label text.  Can you make an option that allows the label text to not be obscured?

[X.]

Your example would be so more readable if it looked like this:

[EngrStudent]

@X, It would be clearer, but your image shows the end-state.  It is about the destination, not the journey.  As much as I like being where I'm going, by definition I can't be there until I have gone there.  

The idea behind the suggestion was about how to get "there", not what it looks like when you are arrived.

[Intaris]

But it's also a good idea to know where you're going when you leave.....  Defining "there" is important.

[EngrStudent]

@Intaris, If you know the end from the beginning then you aren't being challeged by your work, you are under-utilized, and you aren't learning.  It is, however, one of the seven habits of highly effective people to "begin with the end in mind".  That doesn't mean it is fully known, but there are rules/metrics/criteria surrounding it.

I think you are violating the fundamental paradigm of LabVIEW.  (I'm speaking in hyperbole)  Why does anyone need a visual/graphic language anyway?  The end state is what the end-user sees as driven by the computer.  The artifact that achieves the end-state is compiled code.  Why do we need a visual language anyway?  

LabVIEW is fundamentally about empowering, enabling, and bridging the connection between early-state and final state.  The for-loop isn't a LabVIEW novelty, but being able to see the structure of the whole in a way that transcends the scope and clarity of text-based programming, is.  You put the key points of the entire structure of programs that would be 10,000 lines of text into a single monitor-screen.  The compiled code isn't the purpose behind doing that.  Creating clarity in the muddy, messy, poorly defined middle - a way to get to the end with minimum error, and within minimum time - that is the purpose.

Intaris, while every developer is about "there", LabVIEW is fundamentally about managing and mastering the middle.  While my image is the messy middle - it is also about an approach that manages the mess, and leads to a "there" that LabVIEW.  Mastering the messy middle is where NI makes it's money.

PS: you can tell that I am tired/under-caffienated when I turn into Dr. Seuss (or a facsimilie thereof).

[Intaris]

Alfa, is that you?

I never used the word "end".  I used the word "there" which defines the direction you want to go at any moment in time (assuming you even know where "here" is which, from your answer, I am starting to doubt.).  If you are even unable to define the direction you are travelling at any given time then you are lost.

BTW, the "there" you are looking for (no jedi mind-tricks here I swear) is object grouping on the Block diagram.

[EngrStudent]

I used "end" because of the seven-habits format.  In this case end, final, and there are intended as synonyms.

When you are lost, then you must search.  In programmatic terms - that means build parts and parts then put them together.  Break the task down then attack each smaller piece.  Use the content of "How to Solve it" by Polya.  (link, link)

[AristosQueue (NI)]

EngrStudent makes a lot of good points throughout this thread.

Regarding the particular idea requested... I *think* (I haven't checked with the team that works on this) that wires don't dodge labels today specifically because priority is often given to wires running straight for maximum readability. I find, for myself, that if LV gives me the cleanest layout for the wires, then I may choose to move the labels afterward to accomodate that wire layout. Or I may decide I want the labels right where they are and then move that one wire to route around the label. If the auto clean routed around labels in the first place, the work would be greater -- it's easier for me to move a label to a better place than to work out a clean layout of wires (especially when starting from someone else's code or my own code from a year+ ago).

[Darren]

Any idea that has received less than 2 kudos within 2 years after posting will be automatically declined.