I would like to see the Join and Split Numbers function to be expandable and polymorphic. I’m not arguing big vs little. Just accept there are two Endian worlds and work with them. Have you ever joined two or four numbers from a data stream in Little Endian? You have to change the order and cross wires as shown in figure (1).
This is not that clean and it gets worse when you need to split numbers and send them back to a device. Because I join and split a lot of numbers I created a library of vi’s that are clean on the diagram and visually indicate Big vs. Little Endian. A simple arrow works for me to indicate Big vs. Little Endian shown in figure (2). This Library is also attached.
I know the Join and Split two numbers in Big Endian is the same function in LabVIEW. This provide visual consistence on my block diagrams. An example of block diagram code that shows the difference between Big and Little Endian form is shown below in figure (3).
Here is what I would like to see National Instruments create. Make the Join and Split Numbers function to be expandable and polymorphic. The words are only going to get bigger and there will always be two Endian worlds. Make the Join and Split Numbers vi’s expand like the build array function. Click and drag possibly in groups of 2 i.e. 2, 4, 6 and 8 inputs or outputs for the Split Numbers vi. Of course the output data type would correspond to the number input connections. The polymorphic examples are shown below in figure 4.
To take the polymorphic function one step further it could include the data type. There are times when I need to join numbers and convert to a signed integer or a double floating point. A demonstration of the polymorphic data type is shown in figure 5 and 6 with before and after examples.
Expanding the functionality of the Join and Split Number vi’s will reduce block diagram clutter, increase coding speed and maintain visual readability. What do you think?
