glyphs in case structure menus

[Neil.Pate]

Another for the wish list.

It would be great if the right-click context menu on a case structure had small glyphs to the left of the text (think similar to the TortoiseSVN context menu for those that know what I am talking about).

The reason behind my request is that it often takes me quite a while (a few seconds really, but it slows me down), to figure out which menu item will duplicate a case and which will delete a case. For some reason my brain interprets duplicate and delete as the same and I always have to think about it.

A simple "+" glyph next to add, a "-" next to delete etc would go a long way to making those menu choices a lot simpler.

See attached pic for an mock up.

 There are probably lots of menus that could benefit from something like this.

[JackDunaway]

Invariably, I have a difficult time finding three often-used right-click menu items: Duplicate Case, Remove Case Structure, and Remove Diagram Disable Structure. Small glyphs is an excellent idea for visual-scanning recognition. I'm a scanner, which is why it takes me so long to find those items. Literally, if I read the items, I could find it faster, but instead, like a robot, I resort to scanning through the "middle area" of the list 4-5 times before I find it. (Personal problem, or GUI shortcoming? Arguable...)

[crelf]

I'm all for graphical representations to improve intuiativity, and I think this is a great idea (kudos given).  That said, don't go overboard and put glyphs next to everything - that becomes almost as unintuative as no glyphs at all.  Just glyph the more commonly-used items.

[PJM_Labview]

Since we are talking about menu with glyphs, I would love to have the capaibility to natively create menu (standard or right click) with glyphs.

Different idea, still kudo for this one.

[JackDunaway]

crelf... yeah, there is a point where you will crest the maximum visual efficiency, and you're back on the downhill slide for intuitiveness.

For the NI engineer who gets assigned to the feature if it gets approved: please keep us, the community, in the design loop and post prelim artwork. It shouldn't take but a few iterations for a general consensus on what items are best candidates for glyphs.

[Neil.Pate]

Hooray!

Is this going to make it into Current-gen or only NXG?

[Darren]

As of right now, only LabVIEW NXG menus are capable of displaying images. I am not aware of any plans for this functionality to be implemented in LabVIEW.

[Darren]

This idea is currently in the LabVIEW NXG backlog. For LabVIEW 20xx, I'm moving the idea back to the 'New' status to be considered for a future LabVIEW 20xx release.

[Petru_Tarabuta]

Hi Darren,

I know this thread has been idle for a while now (over 4 years), but are there plans for it to be implemented? It would provide a clear productivity boost to me too.

Moreover, it is the perfect type of idea: one that doesn't have side effects (none that I can think of, but please correct me if I'm wrong). Implementing this idea won't break anything else. It doesn't even require the creation of additional unit tests. It seems a clear-cut improvement that shouldn't take long to implement.

[Darren]

> I know this thread has been idle for a while now (over 4 years), but are there plans for it to be implemented? 

This idea happened to come up in an R&D meeting a few weeks ago as something that, although useful as an IDE feature, is unlikely to be prioritized any time soon.

> Moreover, it is the perfect type of idea

In terms of its external appeal, sure. But part of the R&D discussion of this idea involved an estimate as to how much work it would be to refactor the internal implementation of LabVIEW editor menus to be able to support the display of images. Turns out it would be a very large amount of work... and R&D has identified a lot of areas where they could put in a similar amount of work that would have a much bigger positive impact for LabVIEW programmers.

[Petru_Tarabuta]

Hi Darren,

Thanks for the extremely quick reply. "This idea happened to come up in an R&D meeting a few weeks ago" - It's great to hear that ideas on the LabVIEW Idea Exchange are actively being discussed. "although useful as an IDE feature, is unlikely to be prioritized any time soon" - It's sad to hear that.

"But part of the R&D discussion of this idea involved an estimate as to how much work it would be to refactor the internal implementation of LabVIEW editor menus to be able to support the display of images. Turns out it would be a very large amount of work.." - That's sad to hear too. I don't want to be presumptuous, and appreciate that what we (LabVIEW users) see is often the tip of the iceberg of the source code that executes behind the scenes, but it sounds like the fundamental reason why this idea is hard to implement is a significant amount of technical debt that was accumulated in this particular area of the IDE. Perhaps this idea is a good opportunity to clear some of that technical debt, which will allow, for example, the addition of productivity-boosting, visual-cue, user-friendly glyphs to lots of other menus.

I hope that, as other ideas get implemented first, this idea will get its time in the spotlight in the not-too-distant future.