Good coding practices

[Mark_Yedinak]

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Jeff Bohrer wrote:

Quoting from the stye guide pg 5-5

"Creating Control and Indicator Descriptions
Include a description for every control and indicator. To create, edit, and
view object descriptions, right-click the object and select Description and
Tip from the shortcut menu. The object description appears in the Context
Help window when you move the cursor over the object and in any VI
documentation you generate.
Unless every object has a description, the user looking at a new VI has no
choice but to guess the function of each control and indicator. Remember
to enter a description when you create the object. If you copy the object to
another VI, you also copy the description."

So for that point I concur with Smercurio_fc and Really- sure its obvious to the developer during development of the vi (Why "Waste" the time?) When it gets into a larger project with multiple developers or w few day pass between when you build the vi and when you re-use it in a project-- you just saved the wasted time by having the discription and tip right there to refresh your memory.  Like all habits the way you learn first is hard to change.  Expect to grow and develop good habits so they become second nature. 

I had no intention of "picking on you" or sounding grumpy- but you have again shown that you desire to "do LabVIEW Right" and I feel proper documentation is a tremendous benefit. That's my no-so-humble opinion.  And frankly, when I started out I had to learn the hard way-to my great misfortune.

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Back to the style guide

" Front Panel Checklist
Give controls meaningful names. Use consistent capitalization.

The FIRST item on the checklist....First!  Your FP is the first impression of your work.  Consistant font and consistant capitalization gives the impression of professional, detail oriented workmanship.  You don't interview for a job in torn jeans and shoing poor hygene.  Your FPs are an interview for acceptance of your work.  Although it has no bearing on the code functionality whatsoever, your code WILL be judged on its presentation.

error in(no error) and error out are an exception to the rule of initial caps as are certain key words like in, out , ref, dup, DAQmx, IVI, COM and VISA.  These normally appear as listed.  Luckilly, GUIs typically have these objects outside the viewable portion of the FP.

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While I agree with Jeff on this point I did want to state the obvious. While you want your front panels to look good, be well organized and easy on the eyes there is no need to go to extrremes for the front panels of something that is a subVI only. You don't want to waste tons of time creating a beautiful front panel that effectively no one will see. Yes, you need to make it look good and keep it organized. You also want to carry your naming convention along and name things well but there is no need to make it look like a full fledged user interface.