Random Ramblings on LabVIEW Design
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swatts
on:
There should be NO barrier to using LabVIEW in Academia!
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swatts
on:
Thinking As a Service (TaaS) is not a good model!
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DavidJCrawford
on:
The Case for an NI Linux Distribution
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Dhakkan
on:
Tech Growth is Done! (Click-bait alert)
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swatts
on:
LabVIEW in a Box! 2 - I made a PCB
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swatts
on:
A Lil bit of History ..
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Petru_Tarabuta
on:
Some Boring Statements
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softball
on:
LabVIEW and Linux Review
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swatts
on:
LabVIEW in a Box!
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Taggart
on:
Influence
Ramifications
Hello my engineering friends,
Had a lovely time promoting GDevCon and CTI at NI Connect and as I'm taking a breather from writing CTI drivers for the time being it appears I have some surplus energy to put into a blog article.
I had a lovely time in Fort Worth and really enjoyed hanging with everyone.
Before I start here's a picture of where the Austin Conference Center used to be (I think)
And Alan Smith showed me this at the end of the Fort Worth convention center. The water gardens is where Logans Run was filmed, I was in love with Jenny Agutter as a teenage boy.
Anyways to the article....
There's a lot of talk about which framework, workflow, methodology, technology is best and I think a lot of these conversations are missing the point. I also think that we as engineers could do a lot better when we consider all of these things... let me explain.
In the business world should be an emphasis on ROI (Return On Investment), in the engineering would we consider risk and mitigation. In the world of design I suggest we think about ramifications.
Let's look at a fairly standard software dogma.
GLOBALS VARIABLES ARE BAD!!
Now explain why global variables are bad and "because someone I respect told me" does not count, we're engineers dammit!
I suggest you pause here and think on this, just for a couple of minutes, I'll wait........
......
......
OK, global variables can have the affect of making software difficult to comprehend if not managed. But it's even more nuanced than that, if you keep system state globally, it can really make systems hard to understand, if it's only displaying data it has no real affect on comprehension.
That tells us that the type of data held globally can be detrimental to comprehension or not...
Expanding the statement "Global variables are bad" to "The ramifications of using global variables are that using it for system state data can make your system more difficult to comprehend" is much more nuanced and I would suggest accurate.
And sometimes using global variables is appropriate for your design, they're very efficient.
As an engineer/designer I have the option to sacrifice comprehension for efficiency.
I would like to see some more statements with "ramifications" in it. Maybe try and rewrite the next sentence see with "bad" or "best" in it.
As I think if them I'll add them to comments
Lots of Love
Steve
