NI "Compatible" VIs

[Phillip Brooks]

Is it better for NI to provide backwards compatible (compat, legacy, oldvers, whatever you want to call them) VIs or to break the code when loading in a new version and requiring the user to understand the change and replace the broken code?

I just spent a day cursing at the computer because of a single NI supplied VI called "Write to XML File". See dark-side post here if you care why...

In my case, the NI function I called contained calls to subVIs labeled as unsupported. Would NI have cleaned this up if the practice of creating compatible VIs was not an option? Is this a failure of NI to use their own tools on their own libraries or a deficiency in the concept of compatible VIs?

It seems to me that a compatible VI should be like deprecating a node in an SNMP tree. Its not supported anymore, but the interface info still needs to be available to allow for selecting a alternate method.

My technique would be to provide a shell VI with all inputs required and a native function with required inputs empty to force the VI to a broken state. I would set the VI description to indicate the function is unsupported and provide suggested solutions and/or a reference to the release notes.