Newbie Questions on Labview

[paul_a_cardinale]

Ugh!  What a mess.

Please explain why you think that spaghetti code is OK.

[jecunningham@vt.edu]

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@paul_a_cardinale wrote:

Ugh!  What a mess.

Please explain why you think that spaghetti code is OK.

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Honestly, cause it's all I've got and I don't have time or resources to go through a full learning and development process (though I am doing what I can to learn). If I can get something that works and does what I want, I'll be golden. Also, I haven't been able to find anyone with expertise to sit down with at my organization, but am currently looking, so perhaps they'll be able to help me consolidate and streamline things. 🙂

[Yamaeda]

If you select the Consumer While Loop and press Ctrl+U you'll get something like this, which isn't great, but a big improvement:

[jecunningham@vt.edu]

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@Yamaeda wrote:

If you select the Consumer While Loop and press Ctrl+U you'll get something like this, which isn't great, but a big improvement:

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Huh, was not aware of the ctrl+U. It didn't show up on the NI shortcuts page I found, so this is good to know! Thank you!

[GerdW]

Hi Je,

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jecunningham@vt.edu wrote:

Huh, was not aware of the ctrl+U. It didn't show up on the NI shortcuts page I found, so this is good to know! 

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When you hide the labels of LabVIEW nodes (like BuildWaveform or BundleByName) you will gain a lot more block diagram space: that's there's the context help to show you the names of LabVIEW nodes/functions…

[altenbach]

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jecunningham@vt.edu wrote:
Huh, was not aware of the ctrl+U. It didn't show up on the NI shortcuts page I found, so this is good to know! Thank you!

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Rules of thumb:

1. if ctrl+u improves the diagram, it was a horrible mess before. Throw it away and start over.
2. if ctrl+u makes the diagram worse, the code was reasonable, so do a ctrl+z to go back.

The only scenario where I ever use it is on undecipherable code from the forum so I can at least try to understand. 😄 some of it.

[jecunningham@vt.edu]

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@altenbach wrote:

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jecunningham@vt.edu wrote:
Huh, was not aware of the ctrl+U. It didn't show up on the NI shortcuts page I found, so this is good to know! Thank you!

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Rules of thumb:

1. if ctrl+u improves the diagram, it was a horrible mess before. Throw it away and start over.
2. if ctrl+u makes the diagram worse, the code was reasonable, so do a ctrl+z to go back.

The only scenario where I ever use it is on undecipherable code from the forum so I can at least try to understand. 😄 some of it.

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I'm still new enough that I'm not completely certain what an improvement looks like. 😛

[paul_a_cardinale]

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jecunningham@vt.edu wrote:

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@paul_a_cardinale wrote:

Ugh!  What a mess.

Please explain why you think that spaghetti code is OK.

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Honestly, cause it's all I've got and I don't have time or resources to go through a full learning and development process (though I am doing what I can to learn). If I can get something that works and does what I want, I'll be golden. Also, I haven't been able to find anyone with expertise to sit down with at my organization, but am currently looking, so perhaps they'll be able to help me consolidate and streamline things. 🙂

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Are you claiming that you don't know how to do things neatly?  That you've never learned how to arrange things without making a mess?

[altenbach]

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@paul_a_cardinale wrote:

Are you claiming that you don't know how to do things neatly?  That you've never learned how to arrange things without making a mess?

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There is a huge ramp between a new user who cannot really predict how a diagram will grow as features are added (and is unaware of the ctrl+drag function to make space as needed!) and a pedantic programmer who spends 95% of time perfectly aligning and spacing things. I am probably somewhere in-between. 😄

Unlike text programming where we always must start in the upper left corner, LabVIEW does not provide any handrails and code can start anywhere. A new user feels like getting airdropped into the Alaskan wilderness. 😄 I know how I felt in the mid nineties. There was no forum help, and <undo> did not exist yet (Motto: "Think twice, wire once") 😄

[jcarmody]

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@altenbach wrote: [...] a pedantic programmer who spends 95% of time perfectly aligning and spacing things. [...]

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Each object needs to be eight pixels apart.  If there's a wire between them, the wire should just disappear when moved eight pixels.  Containing diagrams must border its contained objects by eight pixels all around.  It's not pedantry, it's what separates us from animals.