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Unexpected gifts from NI


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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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(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. :)

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