Francois Normandin

You can do so much more with XControl.

I would have to say that I like Mark's idea better in the long run because you don't have to deal with managing the values of indicator and control when you switch. You surely don't want to have a control with value 0.000 and then switch to indicator and see 3.14159. Using only a control and playing with the disabled property and background color seems a much better avenue for XControl indeed. In fact, my tutorial was more about showing the "Direction Change" event and that's where you'd go anyway to implement this architecture instead.

I think it's a dead-end. Changing the appearence of your Facade controls isn't allowed programmatically at runtime (XControl is running when loaded on a front panel) so you'd get an error. However, you can use the "Direction Change" event in your XControl's Facade VI to show/hide controls and indicators. See this screencast I prepared. <object id="scPlayer" class="embeddedObject" width="1012" height="684" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/jingh264player.swf" > <param name="movie" value="http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/jingh264player.swf" /> <param name="quality" value="high" /> <param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /> <param name="flashVars" value="thumb=http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/FirstFrame.jpg&containerwidth=1012&containerheight=684&content=http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/2010-07-14_1936.mp4&blurover=false" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> <param name="scale" value="showall" /> <param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /> <param name="base" value="http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/" /> <video width="1012" height="684" controls="controls"><br /> <source src="http://content.screencast.com/users/normandinf/folders/Jing/media/c3902d34-b2fd-40e3-a318-49a665849992/2010-07-14_1936.mp4" type="video/mp4;" /><br /> <b>Your browser cannot play this video. <a href="http://www.screencast.com/handlers/redirect.ashx?target=viewingembededhelp">Learn how to fix this</a>.</b> </video> </object>

On NI Week main page, click on "Session Scheduler for Registrants Only" in the Participate column. Then use "My Schedule" or "Session Catalog"to browse sessions and add them up to your personal schedule. Oh, and reserve some time to attend the Finals of the coding challenge during Thursday's lunch. Abstract: Watch the highest scorer in the week-long LabVIEW Coding Challenge compete against a member of LabVIEW R&D in a live coding competition.

You can definitely schedule back-to-back sessions. There's always plenty of time to get where you want between sessions. Last year's Scripting session was full. I don't think they refused anybody, but I saw a lot of people standing in the back. You should register for your sessions as that would theoretically be the way to attend a session that cannot fit everybody in the room, but I have no knowledge as if it is strictly enforced or not. I've been able to get in every session I planned to attend last year. NI scans your badge at the entrance of most sessions, but that has probably more to do with making sure you've paid the conference fees or for marketing/statistics, than keeping you out of the room. I had a hard time waking up last year, so I could not get a seat for the first keynote! Get up early if you're not a VIP. As for sessions recommendations, I agree completely with Daklu's list. I would also add John Lokanis' "Practical Applications of Web Services in LabVIEW " presentation on Wednesday afternoon.

I stand corrected.

The VI Tags are Private methods that allow to store a tag (variant with a name) in the VI file. They are writable only at edit time but can be read at runtime. You can get access to these tags through utility VIs provided by NI in the <vi.lib>\UserTags folder. The best example of how it's being used is the new Icon Editor which supports layers. The icon is still a "flattened image" of all the layers, but each layer content is stored in VI Tags, thus enabling the icon editor to retrieve all layers information even if the icon is flattened (merged layers).

I thought I had seen this claim in the first post by AddQ, which has been edited so I can't confirm it was the place I read it. Based on Felix' post, I could have thought it was all open source from reading the BSD license of G# and skipping the G# IDE license. Thanks for clarifying Felix. That's the spirit.

I'll be staying at the Hilton Garden Inn. Sunday: Get in at 2:00pm. I'll head down to IronWorks for my first meal after getting off the airplane. Will most probably join Mark and the Bunch at the Ginger Man. Monday: 8AM: Preparation class for CLD Exam. 10AM: Back to hotel to play StarCraft2. (just kidding, I'll go eat first) Tuesday: Lava BBQ Wednesday: NI Party + 1 from me for managing the CR all by yourself! Keep up the good work.

Yes you can, but here I was answering a follow-up question about how to do it without IMAQ or Vision VIs.

MIght not be that, but I sometimes get this kind of messages with "AB_Build_Invoke.vi.ProxyCaller" that is solved when I shorten the build directory path length. Make sure the hierarchy you're trying to save on disk is not longer than 255 characters.

If it's truely open-source, then the password should be given to all developers by AddQ. Has anyone found the password in the released documentation? Somehow, I doubt that AddQ will release it with the current discussion. But I hope I can be proven wrong. Password protection to prevent changing the kernel inadvertantly is ok, but I wouldn't call it open source if the password is not public. Or am I completely wrong about what's open source, and what's not? I hope for them that they at least changed the Endevo passwords...

Hi Mikael, if Symbio could show that one of its password-protected VI has been copied, even partially, it would lift any remaining doubt that some might still have. (Not that I'm one of them)

You read correctly and I expressed myself too poorly (or rather, in too few words). I agree that an arrangement of terminals to create a certain result can be copyrighted, and stated XControls as a good example of that because by using them you almost always create a unique feature from an assortment of basic units. It was however by no means a way to say that front panels were not protectable. But I felt that calling a terminal "error in" and putting it at the same place as competition is not protectable per se. And bored people can decide not to read this thread... It will die of its own when the fuel or oxydizing agent is exhausted.

This statement seems to imply that "Fox_mccloud" is part of the development team of AddQ. Now, take a look at this GSharp community page on ni.com where Fox_McCloud answers MattiasEricsson: Simulating to be your average Joe and answering your own questions to try creating a buzz is not illegal, but that's part of what is called "deceptive marketing strategy", at least where I come from. Here's some reading to consider. (page 21 is of particular interest).

NI had patented the graphical representation of a while loop... Probably expired now, but still that's one example.

Thanks. That's exactly what I wanted to have a look at.

Anyone knows when the official conference program will be released? Only the preliminary program is currently displayed. The conference is only four weeks away. Anyone remembers when it was released last year?

Yes and no. Is it a copyright issue that most programmers use a 4x2x2x4 conpane and put object in/out and error in/out in the four corners? The styles of the controls on a front panel are all part of LabVIEW's development environment and licensed to be used as part of the purchase of a LabVIEW license from NI. Therefore, unless you have special controls/indicators specific to your app (XControls might be an example), you might well put your terminals at the same spot as your competitor, if only not to throw off the user or as part of good programming style. For all we know, both front panels could have sprung from the same copyright-free template. Thinking of it, G# might even have been programmed using a paid professional version of GDS, therefore using the GDS templates they'd rightfully acquired by paying for the software. (That's a lot of "ifs"... and that's another reason why AddQ should not have deleted their posts.)

Well, there is without a doubt a serious amount of talent required to produce this framework and I don't doubt that there is a substantial part that is new. I'll refrain my complaints and wait to see how it unfolds as I'm but just a spectator in all this. I can definitely say though that I'll skip the evaluation of this tool for now, hoping that I get more information as some people are bound to use it and comment. For that, it seems that the G# community on ni.com is still operational (as opposed to LAVA), so I'll keep an eye now and then. As I obviously have no clue as to what the GDS kernel looks like, I cannot in good conscience (as you pointed out between lines) compare judiciously the two frameworks.

The meaning must lose its sense in the translation. Sorry, I don't have a better way to describe when I'm thinking. I partially disagree with you. As I mentioned, starting from scratch is know-how, and there are no laws preventing you from reproducing know-how unless it's patented work, which is probably not the case here. It's hard to patent software in the first place and that's why there is are passwords on the block diagrams. Connector panes and front panel positions are not enough evidence to throw the stone because they're part of the public domain of even password-protected VIs. Coincidently, if AddQ hadn't pulled off of the forum, I might not have this opinion right now. Of course it raises an ethical question, but more than that: simply copying the content of your hard drive when you leave a company is against the law of ALL countries who protect IP. The work produced for an employer is strictly its property as a business entity, and no one else's.

I beg to differ. LAVA is a forum for this. As an independant forum, its participants will discuss anything related closely or loosely to LabVIEW. If we have questions about a product, we surely will continue to ask them. Whether or not AddQ wants to continue the discussion is entirely up to you, but deleting parts of discussion leaves a very bad impression and probably will encourage others to continue without you able to correct any misinterpretations. Fleeing the discussion only risks to aggravate it. I adhere strongly to the principles of open source, but never at the expense of stealing intellectual property. Know-how can be duplicated given time and efforts, but copying source code directly without giving proper credits or respecting licensing agreements is a breech that even an open-source fan like myself cannot disregard. Come with a genuine framework completely out of your gut, and the community will give it a chance. Ask for contribution from this open source community and you might even get it. But long time contributors to this forum make a living of creating products as a add-on to LabVIEW. Let's not kill their business to create another one. I salute the effort to build a business out of a completely open source product offering as a marketing strategy to develop your consulting business, but it has to respect the rules and existing competition. Fair competition will benefit everyone in this community. Existing products will need to get better to stay on the edge, new products will attract business and end users like most of us will get increased productivity from a better development environment. If you cannot continue this discussion for legal reasons, please say so. But if you don't want to continue the discussion, I think it leaves a bad aftertaste to all of this, and no chance for redemption.