Unexpected gifts from NI

[Daklu]

Class references... woo hoo! (Although apparently you still can't have two classes reference each other... odd.) Friend classes... woo hoo! (Already has been much more useful than I expected.) Must override... woo hoo! (Eliminates an error message and frees up error code 5000. ) New icon builder... woo hoo! (Haven't quite figured out the templates...) Quick drop shortcuts... woo hoo! (Ctl-T to move block diagram labels to the sides, Ctl-D create and wire controls and indicators of a selected sub vi, and a few others I don't remember.)

These are the main things I've discovered so far. The last two items in particular have noticably increased my coding speed. On the downside, it does seem to be somewhat less stable than 8.6. I had several crashes yesterday. Still, the new additions more than make up for that.

As a side note, the splash screen was due for an update and the new one looks much more professional. Kudos to whoever designed it.

[Yair]

Quick drop shortcuts... woo hoo!

Am I the only one who thinks this is really stupid?

Not because of the shortcuts themselves. They're useful.

The problem is with placing them in QD.

W.

T.

F.

!.

This is the kind of thing that would be ideal in something like the right-click framework - select something, operate on it. Why is it in QD?

Obviously the answer is simple - someone wanted it and didn't have anywhere else to put it which would make it easily accessible, but I find this to be totally unrelated to the QD functionality and very undiscoverable.

[crossrulz]

Am I the only one who thinks this is really stupid?

Not because of the shortcuts themselves. They're useful.

The problem is with placing them in QD.

W.

T.

F.

!.

This is the kind of thing that would be ideal in something like the right-click framework - select something, operate on it. Why is it in QD?

Obviously the answer is simple - someone wanted it and didn't have anywhere else to put it which would make it easily accessible, but I find this to be totally unrelated to the QD functionality and very undiscoverable.

I had the exact same thought. These functions have absolutely nothing to do with placing new nodes on the block diagram. But whatever. There they are. CTL+SPACE and then another CTL combo. RCF makes so much more sense in this matter.

[Aristos Queue]

I had the exact same thought. These functions have absolutely nothing to do with placing new nodes on the block diagram. But whatever. There they are. CTL+SPACE and then another CTL combo. RCF makes so much more sense in this matter.

Talk to Darren N. He's the one who felt these went with Quick Drop.

[Yair]

Talk to Darren N.

Had I been in Austin I certainly would have. Had I noticed it in the beta I would have said something then.

I don't have a problem with the feature existing. I just feel its placement in QD is "stupid".

If you'd be kind enough to draw the esteemed Mr. Nattinger's attention to this thread, I'd be happy to take it up with him mano a mano.

[Daklu]

Am I the only one who thinks this is really stupid?

I agree placing them as part of the quickdrop function is odd decision, but in practice I think it works really well. Right click menus are best for a small group of commonly used functions. Personally I think NI overused the right click menu. It's overcrowded and as a result uses cascading flyout menus. Navigating these require too many consecutive precise mouse movements. And if you have to use multiple functions from the same nested menu... grr...

Hotkeys are faster than mouse clicks for most people. I just have a hotkey accessor method to get to the 'special' hotkeys.

[Jim Kring]

Talk to Darren N. He's the one who felt these went with Quick Drop.

I talked to Darren in the hallways, here at NIWeek. He said that we can easily create an RCF plugin that calls the VI that performs these scripting actions.

[Val Brown]

Excellent!

BTW, Jim, do either the RCF plugin or State Machine require OpenG?

[Darren]

I will certainly admit that the placement within Quick Drop of the new keyboard shortcuts isn't the most ideal location for the feature (although it is documented in the Keyboard Shortcuts topic in the LabVIEW 2009 Help). But before deciding to spew forth vitriol against a feature you can freely choose not to utilize, please note that the following conversation has already taken place several times within the walls of NI over the past few months:

QD Fan: "Hey Darren, I really like the new keyboard shortcuts in Quick Drop!"

Darren: "Thanks!"

QD Fan: "One question though, why do I have to launch Quick Drop first to use them?"

Darren: "Because every single keyboard shortcut letter is already claimed by something in LabVIEW. Since I can't go messing with the default shortcuts myself, I'm simply using Quick Drop as an entry point to start defining new ones written in G."

QD Fan: "Oh, ok. That makes sense."

It would be great if we could override the default keyboard shortcuts in LabVIEW with our own (I never use Ctrl-D to distribute objects or Ctrl-T to tile windows!). However, that would require extensive work in the menu code to allow user-defined VIs to run when menu selections (or their associated keyboard shortcuts) are pressed. I inquired about this during LabVIEW 2009 development (knowing that JKI was already doing some work in this area), and was told that nobody with knowledge of the menu code would be able to work on that kind of feature any time in the near future. So instead of throwing in the towel, I took what I thought would be a useful feature, and wrote it anyway, in the easiest way I knew how...as a plugin for Quick Drop. So instead of pressing Ctrl-D to drop controls/indicators that are wired to the selected object, you press Ctrl-Space-Ctrl-D. If it helps, maybe you can close your eyes when you do this so you don't see the Quick Drop window appear for a split second before it disappears?

And maybe it would help if I told you that the shortcut mechanism is pluginable? I only had time to ship LabVIEW 2009 with three QD shortcuts (Ctrl-T, Ctrl-[shift]-D, and Ctrl-R). But I'll be posting on my blog soon how you can write your own shortcuts for more keys, including info on how you can use whatever is currently typed in Quick Drop within your plugin code (Replace with Quick Drop instead of the palettes, anyone?). If anybody wants to start experimenting on their own before I have a chance to post more detailed info, check out [LabVIEW]\resource\dialog\QuickDrop\QuickDrop Plugin Template.vi.

-D

[Yair]

As I said, I think that the features themselves are great (gotta love Ctrl+R) and I fully understand the logic of placing them in QD. I also agree that it's better to ship a crooked feature than not ship it at all and that no one has to actually use the feature if they don't want to.

That said, I still feel that it "just doesn't fit" into QD. It's just a nagging feeling of "WTF?!", even though it works very well and I will probably use it. If QD was changed so that Ctrl+Space opens up a "shortcut dialog" which would list these shortcuts (from which another Ctrl+Space would open QD), it would make some sense, but as it is, it doesn't. If the RCF had keyboard shortcuts you could assign to the plugins once you click the hot-key, that would be cool and would definitely help.

P.S. And no, I don't think that the fact that's a plugin framework would help the feeling of wrongness. It's great it can be extended, but it still feels like it belongs elsewhere.

[Daklu]

(Replace with Quick Drop instead of the palettes, anyone?).

Yes, yes, yes, yes... and yes.

Renaming the Ctl-Space hotkey combo from Quick Drop to something like 'User Hotkeys' might help. Now User Hotkeys can invoke two different types of functionalities: Quick Drop (using normal alphanumerics) and Quick Run (using a Ctl key combo.) That's what I do in my head anyway and it all makes sense to me.

[Darren]

As promised, here's my blog post on creating your own Quick Drop keyboard shortcuts in LabVIEW 2009.

-D