property node or what else ?

[atd]

Hi,

I want to built a VI that function similar to the Terminal in the Telnet Line Client.vi (in Telnet Toolkit).  I try to learn from the example, but could not figure out what the "Terminal" showed below is.  The 1st picture in the attachment is the property node, but I don't know how it is related to the 2nd picture.  Could not find any help on it, and don't even know what it called  Any idea is appreciate!

thanks,

Anh

[TiTou]

Hi Anh,

The second "thing" in your picture is a local variable.
With a property node, you can access not only the value of the pointed variable ("terminal" in that case) but all its attributes, such as size, position, color, visible or not and many interesting things ; some attributes are read only and some at reable and writtable.
With a local variable, you can only access (in read or write mode) the value of the pointed variable.

To create a local variable, right click on your variable, go to "create" >> "local variable" 😉

Am I clear ?

[atd]

Thanks TiTou, your answer is clear as it can be  Sadly, this answer should have been included in the LV context help instead of the useless "No description available". 

[TiTou]

You are very welcome Anh, it is always a pleasure to help 😉

one of my favorite catch phrase is : "learn what you can & share what you know" 🙂

[jasonhill]

The "No Description Availible" context help messages bug me, too.  At a minimum, it should be described as a local variable.   In an ideal world it would tell me how many other read and write local variables there are for that indicator/control.   Local variables can cause confusion and race conditions.  Knowing how many other writes and reads exist would really help in debugging.

[Dennis_Knutson]

Context help is available for a local variable. It's just that the description of the actual control/indicator is what is displayed. This, I think is correct behavior. If, on the other hand, you had right clicked the local variable and selected help, you would get the Local Variable help topic.

[TiTou]

Jason,

I agree with you, but you can actually know how many local variables you have for indicator/control by using the search function (Ctrl + F) or right-click on the indicator/control or "Find" >> "local variables". 😉

[atd]

Thanks Dennis, I was looking for the obvious  I learn something new everyday!