LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

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Problem:
The Find dialog currently doesn't store its text search settings (e.g. Case sensitive, Whole word) if the User cancels the dialog.

Details:

The Find dialog only stores its text search settings if the user explicitly performs a file search. The disadvantage of this behaviour, is that the user has to reconfigure his search settings after cancelling the dialog. Users may sometimes open the Find dialog, configure some search settings and then (probably accidentally) cancel the dialog, but then open the dialog again to perform the actual search. This way the previous search settings are reset and lost.

Suggestion:

I suggest that the search setting should be stored somehow in the CVI ADE, such that the search settings persist in the text editor, despite of the user cancelling the Find dialog.

I also think that this should apply for other text search dialogs (like, Find in Files, Replace, Replace in Files). This behaviour of a text search dialog is particularly accepted by other mainstream text editors and IDEs.

Advantages:

Search settings are stored even if the user cancels the Find dialog.
User doesn't have to explicitly invoke a find operation through the Find dialog, in order to have search settings (mainly the 'Case sensitive' setting) influence the Quick Search (Ctrl + Q) functionality. This is by far, the most helpful use case for this change. It's quite cumbersome to always have to performs a Find operation through a find dialog, in order to change the case sensitivity of the Quick Search feature, particularly because the find operation takes extra steps and causes distraction (displays the Find Results window).

When you place a splitter control on a panel with several controls and want to attach a few of them to the splitter, you can define for each of them whether the splitter moves or resizes the control ("attachment mode"). At present, however, this must be made individually control by control, which is time wasting if you have a bunch of similar controls to attach and define.

I suggest the splitter control is added the ability to select more controls and set for all of them the attachment mode in a single pass. Limiting this possibility to similar controls (e.g. only numerics or tables selected) can be accepted if this simplifies checks the editor does in this operation.

(this suggestion refers to CVI up to 2012SP1, I cannot check it for more recent releases)

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While defining attachment mode for controls attached to a splitter we face a very strange situation. In this image you can see on the right the aspect of the window with one control selected in "Controls on the splitter" window in Attach/Detach Controls dialog. On the right the same dialog when you click on Attachment mode control:

Now, there are two strange effects:

Attachment mode control is being operated while dimmed
If you happen to miss Attachment mode ring, you need to select again the original control in order to have the ring enabled, which is boring and time-wasting

I suggest that at least that ring is not disabled when clicking on it or clicking away from "Controls on the splitter" box.

(this suggestion refers to CVI up to 2012SP1, I cannot check it for more recent releases)

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Control tooltip

While it is possible to programmatically add a menubar to a tab page with LoadMenuBar, it is not possible to do that in the UIR editor.

Sometimes I use a tab control to display different scenarios to the user hiding tabs so that he's not aware of the pages not shown: this permits to have a single panel with all elements properly placed and designed on the different pages and programmatically choose which page to display depending on operating conditions or other characteristics. In such a case the tab page behaves like a "normal" panel, but while you can have a standard child panel with its own menubar, you cannot add one to a tab page other than programmatically.

It would be a handy to be able to add a menubar to tab pages too in the editor.

WYSIWYG UIR Editor (again)

FileSelectPopup

Put the X on the tab it goes with.

This X just closes out of the tab that is on top.

Pretty much every other program with tabs has the X on the tab you’re closing out of. The current placement makes me hesitate every time, because it feels like you’re X-ing out of the entire code-viewing pane, not just the single file you want to close.

It’s also not consistent with the rest of the environment.

For example, in the pane on the bottom in the screenshot above, “Threads” and “Wa tch” look like two tabs, but clicking the X in that pane causes the entire pane to disappear rather than just closing the tab that is on top.

I made this suggestion some time ago - but had it combined with another idea. Part of the suggestion was implemented so I am trying to revive the remainder here...

For me it would be useful to have at least two different line types for the separator in ring controls, i.e. not only a solid line, but also a dashed (and possibly a dotted) line: This would help to group different entries into groups (solid line) and subgroups (dashed line). The idea would be to provide some more escape codes resulting in the different line styles.

Thanks.

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CVI currently provides a way for alligning controls (using the dotted matrix). But, with large UIs, this method is inefficient and users must align controls over large distances by hand from the Property Browser. I propose an upgrade that would help users achieve alignment by drawing lines that unite the control being moved and any other control that happens to be close to alignment with it (Figure 1).

This feature would increase usability and productivity (which seems to be decreasing by increasing the size and complexity of UIRs).

Figure 1: Control alignment in Microsoft's Visual Studio 2010, for the C# interface editor.

Tables are often used to display test results organized in columns, which means the user very often has to search a particular column for a specific value. At present the "search vertically" checkbox is not checked by default in Find in Table Cells dialog, which means the user has to explicitly select it otherwise the search could locate the wrong cell.

What I would like to have is the ability to programmatically set the relevant default options on the dialog before it is shown. With this I mean:

Show/Hide/Dim some elements
Preset some value (like checking the Search Vertically option)

( Tested with CVI 2012SP1. Not yet installed 2013 )

Tooltips for menu bars

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Summary:

Data Tooltip should also display the name of the function, when displaying the value of a function pointer variable.

Description:

While debugging a CVI application, when hovering the mouse cursor over a function pointer variable, the Data Tooltip displays the address of that function, referenced by the variable.

It would be very useful in cases when you have multiple function pointer variables referencing several different variables, to have the Data Tooltip not only display the address of those functions, but the name of the functions as well.

Tooltips Dimmer Callback

As discussed here earlier I am using tooltips that show 'dynamic' information, e.g. the permitted data range of the respective control, available user actions..., These frequently depend on several other controls and parameters.

Right now, all other affected controls etc. need to call a function to re-build the tooltip text, and to more than 90% this is wasted effort because the tooltip text is changed again before it may get displayed...

Thus I would like to suggest a 'dimmer callback', similar to the menu dimmer callback. This 'tooltip dimmer callback' should be called just before the tooltip is going to be displayed, allowing to build/update the tooltip text only when needed.

Thanks

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Hi. I find occasionally that it would be handy to be able to add items to the event que through the debugger. Like, for example, to call a callback function as if the user had interacted with the user interface. This would be especially handy for remote debugging, where I could add in an item in the que as if a button had been pushed on the user interface without having to physically walk over to the debuggee and push the button on the screen. I'm not sure the best way to implement this, and I can picture some pretty sophisticated interfaces. However, something simple could be perhaps a screen like the function panel for CallCtrlCallback(...) where I could enter in the Panel handle, Control ID, Event, etc. and have the event added to the event que? Thanks.

LabWindows/CVI Idea Exchange

Find Dialog Should Persist Search Settings Without The User Having To Explicitly Perform A Search

Improve splitter controls to permit selecting more controls while defining attachment mode

Improve behaviour of "attachment mode" ring in splitter control

Control tooltip

Include Zoom Functionality for Digital Graph

Menubar on pages of a tab control

WYSIWYG UIR Editor (again)

Make ATTR_ON_VALUE and ATTR_OFF_VALUE work for toggle buttons

FileSelectPopup

Add ability to display Printer Dialog box to all print functions

Put the X on the tab it goes with.

Permit "blocking" a tab control in the UIR editor

Allow for different line types (dashed, dotted) of separators in ring controls

Upgrade the UIR editor to better align controls

Ability to customize "Find in Table Cells" dialog

Tooltips for menu bars

add the 'view control callback' to menu items from uir editor

Data Tooltip Should Display Function Name Of Pointer To Function Variable

Tooltips Dimmer Callback

Ability to add events to the event que while debugging.