'I'm sure there are many reasons why a zoom feature hasn't been implemented yet. The one I've heard the most is because there are indeed utilities out there that can be used to zoom. '
The zoom programs that I have found are generic windows programs that simply magnify part of the users screen. A true zoom can implement much more than a simple magnification of one area of the screen. I would like to be able to use the wheel of my mouse and see the whole diagram zoomed in and out analogous to the way internet explorer scrolls up and down when using the wheel.
'A zoom feature is something R&D is working
on so you should see it in an upcoming version of LabVIEW. For the mean time, you can certainly use the 3rd party tools out there. '
I don't really feel that this is a valid excuse for the lack of a zoom feature. Labview has been around a long time and it seems to me, and to everyone I have spoken to with Labview experience, that a zoom feature is obvious and is expected to be in the first release of a graphical program, not delayed until post-Labview6.1. Also, it does not seem terribly complicated. A zoom is something lots and lots of graphical programs (to my knowledge all graphical programs minus labview) implement and with a well designed front end should be rather trivial.
'Something else to always remember is the power of the subVI. The more you can modularize your program into subVIs, the easier your top level application will be to read.'
Now all of us who have programmed enough know of the importance of modularization, but I would also assume that most of us have encountered situations in which this is simply not possible or not the best decision. The former, when you inherit someone else's code and have to "embrace and extend" in a limited time period, the latter when there is some routine that has been properly modularized into segments which still comes out to be rather large (ie a front panel on a large labview program). Even though the panel is simply doling out tasks to subroutines, if the front panel has a large amount of buttons than you end up with a large amount of if/else blocks that handle the button clicks.
Matt, I really appreciate your previous response and I look forward to any additional input.
Nate
