Today's nugget looks at the many different ways that you can access help for MathScript.
If you're working in the command-line interface of the MathScript Window, the 'help' command is your best friend. You can type 'help function_name' to see the help for any MathScript function. By default, this will open the topic for that function in the LabVIEW HTML help browser. If you prefer to see the help right within the MathScript Window, you can go to File>>LabVIEW MathScript Properties and change the 'Display HTML Help?' checkbox.
These function help topics give you all kinds of useful information. There is the basic information like the function name, legacy name, and a brief description of what the function does. You can see a listing of all the possible signatures of the function along with a description of each input and output. There is a small code sample that you can copy into the MathScript Window or Node to see the function in action. You'll find a list of related functions, which is helpful for finding similar functionality that may be useful in your algorithm. You can also find similar functionality by browsing the various classes of functions. Each function shows its owning class at the top of its help page.
There are some other ways to discover new functionality. When using the help command in the MathScript Window, you can type partial function names. For example, this is what you see if you type 'help si':
>>help siLabVIEW MathScript > help sign > help sin > help sinc > help single > help sinh > help size My favorite way to find help for a function is to search the index in the help browser. In Windows, just open the Index tab and start typing. Topics for MathScript functions will end with
(MathScript RT Module function). Often, the help for the corresponding LabVIEW function will appear right next to the MathScript help. This can be a useful resource for learning more detail about the function, since the MathScript version is usually implemented on top of the LabVIEW one.
You can use the LabVIEW help to learn about other parts of MathScript in addition to the functions. Most of the topics I've covered in MathScript Nuggets are covered in even greater detail in the LabVIEW help. Some key ones are the sections on calling user-defined functions, dealing with warning glyphs, and debugging MathScript Nodes. And, as mentioned in
MathScript Nugget #2, you can use the context help window to see help for various parts of your MathScript Node without ever even launching the help browser.
The best part about the LabVIEW and MathScript help is that it's available even without LabVIEW and MathScript! Every help page since at least LabVIEW 8.2 is available for free on NI.com. This is great for sending help links to colleagues or looking up a function's documentation without even launching LabVIEW. It's just a quick web search away!
Finally, if you have a comment about something you see in the help, it's dead simple to ask NI to do something about it. Every help page (both on NI.com and within LabVIEW) has a "Submit Feedback" link at the bottom. You can rate the page and add specific comments about what is missing, what could be improved, or what you like about the topic. We're eager to hear what you think!
jattas
LabVIEW MathScript R&D
ps. Check out
more MathScript Nuggets!
