Is this a Good Idea or a Bad Idea?

[paul_cardinale]

I got a crazy idea, but I don’t know how crazy it is: Put device drivers inside XControls.

The façade would have controls/indicators representing the front panel of the instrument.

The block diagram terminal data would be a cluster of the FP controls.

Settings & functions would be accessed either via property & invoke nodes or the block diagram terminal.

It would have the following advantages:

1. The functions are nicely bundled.
2. An instrument GUI is automatically available to the owning VI.
3. Browsing properties and methods would be easier than finding subVIs

Let me know what you think

[Yamaeda]

Sounds interesting. Test it and tell us how it goes. 🙂

/Y

[crossrulz]

Sounds like it should work well for GUI systems.  For my automated systems, I think it would get more confusing.  I'll stick with Objects for my instrument drivers.

[Hooovahh]

Interesting idea.  Initially I liked it, but then I started thinking about how I use drivers, and porting something like this to an RT system (with no, or limited UI access) would make me curse the developer who buried the driver level API behind an XControl.  If it works for you I say go for it, but just be aware of the pitfalls...like using XControls in general.