Black Pearl

Eventum looks so much nicer than bugzilla or mantis. Also the ability to config it looks much better. I will have some of my team to have a look on it, maybe we migrate. So thanks for mentioning it. Felix

Tomi, your latest blog entry is fantastic! You are backing up that great concept of yours be solid CS theory. Do you think that we can get more out of functional programming, now that recursion is finally native to LV? Felix

About Fogbugz: I really would like to take a try. But I need it 'free' (that seems to ok with Joel/FogCreek) and off-line (and as I read about the free one, they even host it in their servers). Is it possible to install it on my intranet? Felix

If anyone wants this topic documented, get involved on the blue side: http://decibel.ni.com/content/docs/DOC-6673#cf Felix

I use Mantis. I consider the interface a bit ugly (same for bugzilla). But that's ok for internal use. The setup I did not do myself but my more IT-focused co-developers. I guess you need to know how to set up a SQL server and things like that. Doesn't seem to complicated, I just try to avoid any code involving text... Felix

Got it! The name of the control must be 'return value'. Guess they use GetValue property somewhere. Felix

I'm trying to hijack the CTRL+N shortcut to start with a template vi instead of a blank vi. I guess my problem is, that I have the wrong ConPane for the lv_new_vi.vi . In some old threads I found discussions about it, but there was no code to extract the ConPane (maybe due to the server crash). Felix

Just a step in from the side. Is the reverse of a 'WORM' a valid design. I confess, that I use globals as duct tape when I need to fix something 'right now'. So if I go with the WORM design, I reduce the risk of that duct tape falling off after delivery of the code. Is the same ok if I code Write Many Read Once? To give a practical scenario: I have various abort conditions (Panel Close, Stop Button, Error) and one measurement routine that monitors the abort flag. Ok, it is read 3 times: Init (Default value), Measurment routine and Reset (after routine stopped). Or is there a way to make this a reusable 'Abort' classs on it's own... Felix

If I remember correctly, there is a dynamic list code with XControls on ni.com. If you are familiar with advanced coding techniques, this might give you the highest flexibility. Another simple option to manage runtime 'creation' of controls it is to use an array.

Congratulations Jim! I'm sure she will love playing with wires in a few month. Enjoy the time. And enjoy the time before they know to switch your PC on and off. Felix

I shouldn't post late sunday night, but I can't resist. I have started to do some reuse vi's in the last half year. Deployment was a copy on the USB stick to my fellow programmers. I'm still in a process to learn the pitfalls on my own. This is mainly about writing them in a way, that I will never break my projects. As I'm pretty sure that I won't get a VIPM budget, I also was looking on SCC to at least give my some ways. My idea (it's SVN) was to have a root hierachy of LV versions, below that the trunk/tags and have the user (me at the moment) check them in on the user.lib folder. I only use the trunk for now (it still is a private project for me). My own impression is, that I save time against not using any of these (reuse, SCC), but I would be better of having a management tool for that (VIPM Pro). But for me currently the biggest barrier is to get the other developers use such tools (and they do a good job despite it). So the biggest pitfall? I threw vi's out of the reusable, other projects did rely on. Very intentionally. And also decided to get some older concepts back in. Was worth the troubles, as I had used OpenG builder to have an llb copy where the originals where in. In fact the problems I did survive with an older concept of having a 'reuse' folder somewhere on my HD which maintains a copy of what is not in the user.lib and SCC. But, problem unsolved: how to get my team working with it/benefit from it? Felix

I could imagine that you can make some impressive toy for some managers with this, when you map the complete production facility with equipement status, analysis of bottlenecks, material flow ... Felix

crelf: can you please explain the term 'tracable artifacts'. I don't get your message. Felix

AQ: I really would like to see this behavior for disabled=0 (if an error occures upstream, the exit button is not enabled, bad...). Maybe we could just have some properties duplicated with something like (Ignore Errors). Felix

Can you please tell us the data type of the control. Benchmarks that were given on the feedback node (I think it was Darren's blog) have shown differences depending on the data type. But the picture is clear and as expected. Felix

I did compare both by webcast only. I would use the JKI one, not only due to the price. Using the NI UTF gives you support and a 'ripe' product. But it's not counting that much as JKI will also give you support thru LAVA and as it is based on xUnit, the core is rock solid. And work will continue... Why I prefer the JKI one is actually that it seems more light-weight. If I do test driven developement, I should (my opinion) code/design for easy testing (which theoretically will make 'good' code). And I want little effort to define the tests. Turning the coin, NI UTF seems to give you more features for comparison of actual and required output, as well as to check code coverage. Felix

Can you try both examples with Syncronous display? I would guess that the reference forces the transfer copy and we have another copy still unknown. Felix

Calculations should be done by wire and not by locals. The biggest wrong on locals is the name 'variable', that leads beginners to use them too much. Locals are only to display the results to the user (and normally the terminal is enough). Felix

BDD - Bug Driven Developement Felix

As mentioned before, the use of the property node is slower because of the 'thread swapping'. For some reasons, the UI thread is a single thread (no multicore/hyperthreading here) and thus poses a bottle neck. So you should always rarly use local variables and far less frequently the property nodes. There are some cases where you need the property nodes though. If you are working with a cluster, you can read/write the value of a single (and even random) element of the cluster with the property node. Also if you use other properties as well, you can assign the value, as the thread swapping already needs to take place. Felix

My idea would be to use a facade design pattern to allow the user to cast a class to an interface. So all classes would inherite from the interfacable class, which have a method CastAsInterface (and maybe more like GetInterfaces and the like, some of them private...). The cast interface would then return the facade vi (just encapsulating the calls on the class that are part of the interface declaration), which holds the the object in its private data (this allows per value designs, I hope). I don't know if that really works, as I'm not yet into LVOOP. Felix

Taking into account the general theory of relativity, the speed of software developement is reduced by the mass of hardware? Felix

(Inital design effort) + (Inital developement effort) + (Code Maintanance costs) - (Time Saved by reusing) Felix

I also go with Industrial Computers - apart from PCI - I rely on good old RS232. I would say, that is a bit the professional way of dealing with that issue (industrial computers have other advantages as well, but cost more I guess). For hobby/low budget I would head for the USB devices (I think they also safe you some cabeling costs). And another solution for the geeks: use an old PC with PCI, connect it via Ethernet to a modern PC. Have the DAQ part running on the old PC and fetch the Data from these small VIs via VI Server and do the analysis on the new one. Felix

Well, your info that you do EMG is worth a lot. I just talked to a domain expert, so filtering is the standard way; but on debate (you loose information). I think there is enough knownledge if you can disclose your information (give us data, give us shematics, photos...), otherwise you're stuckwith the book tip. Between to 60 uV you give (I get 700uV on wikipedia about EMG) and the 180 mV TM disturbance are magnitudes to bridge. Felix