"Build path" function´s input terminal "base path" should be required

[Rashek]

Currently, "build path" function has input "base path" set as recommended. This can cause issue when you accidentally do not wire this input. By default there is empty path, which is not really helpful and even if there was any case when you want to wire empty path to build path function, you can easily create constant. Therefore, it would be much more user friendly to have "base path" input of "build path" function set as required by default.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

I just checked -- this behavior seems to be nearly original to LabVIEW (at least back to LV 4.0). It was replicated into LabVIEW NXG.

I do not know why this behavior was chosen originally; I don't know if NXG just duplicated faithfully or if they re-evaluated and decided there was some important reason to keep the behavior. I'll ask.

[wiebe@CARYA]

Seems to me the optional base path was mend as a feature.

Building "\test" to the base path, gives me "C:\test". We'll lose that when the input is required, although it still works when wiring an empty path. I supposed this used to be more useful back when C:\ was the only drive we had.

[Rashek]

The point is that you can still have the same functionality as now by just wiring empty path (not much of a work) and for this slight inconvenience you gain the advantage of not having to worry about accidentally not wiring recommended input, which can cost you a lot of headaches and time when you will try to find out why your path is not set as supposed, just to find out that you simply forgot to wire this input (which would not happen with required input)

[wiebe@CARYA]

My point was it's a feature. It happens to be a feature you don't like, but it's a feature nonetheless.

I can't say I ever put a Build Path down, and then forgot to wire it.

I also can't say I every used this feature as it is.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> It happens to be a feature you don't like, but it's a feature nonetheless.

And that's why it is on the idea exchange and not the bug list. Many of the ideas are to change LV's existing features to behave differently.

[wiebe@CARYA]

>> It happens to be a feature you don't like, but it's a feature nonetheless.

>And that's why it is on the idea exchange and not the bug list. Many of the ideas are to change LV's existing features to behave differently.

Just showing both sides of the coin. Changing this behavior might displease some people that actually use this feature....

[rolfk]

Actually, this used to be definitely a feature and is as a whole, pretty impossible to change now. For several file nodes (when it makes sense) the empty path is the canonical file system root. Try to do a List Folder node with an empty path input! Yes you get all the current volumes in the "folder names" array.

On non-Windows (Linux) systems it is equivalent to the / root path and used to be equivalent to the empty Macintosh HFS path, which was the container for all file volumes. (Sounds strangely familiar?) 😁

It existed back in at least LabVIEW 2.2.1 already and was fully ported to LabVIEW 2.5 and 3.0 when the multiplatform release was created.

Making this particular parameter required would be however an option, with some mutation code support that when upgrading VIs from earlier versions would add an empty path constant to this input.