MathScript Nugget #22: MathScript Window Enhancements in LabVIEW 2010

[jattas]

This is the last of three nuggets on new MathScript features in LabVIEW 2010. Previous nuggets focused on the MathScript Node and the MathScript Probe. Today's is all about the interactive environment of the MathScript Window.

We improved two aspects of the MathScript Window in LabVIEW 2010: performance and the script editor user interface. On the performance side, we've eliminated a longstanding gap in performance between the MathScript Window and node. As several previous releases have sped up the run-time performance of the MathScript Node, the MathScript Window has stayed at the same level performance, missing out on the "blazing speed" that the node now achieves. Now the window will run with the high performance that you have come to expect from LabVIEW code. The improvement will be particularly noticeable for scripts that are heavy on loops and "number crunching". We've seen such scripts speed up by as much as 5x.

There are a couple small caveats to this improvement. First, if you call any functions that introduce a warning glyph in your code, performance will slow down back to 2009 speed (which is similar to the speed that you achieve in a MathScript Node with a warning glyph). Second, calling user-defined .m files from your script or command will also be slower. This is a limitation that we hope to fix in future versions of LabVIEW.

The second area of improvement to the MathScript Window in 2010 is the user interface. The script editor got a major upgrade in 2010. It now has standard code editing features like syntax highlighting, find/replace, code bookmarks, line numbers, and more (most of these features are on Windows only, for now). Here's a screen shot of the snazzy new editor in 2010:



I hope you enjoy all of the new MathScript features in LabVIEW 2010!

jattas
LabVIEW MathScript R&D

ps Check out more MathScript Nuggets!