Labview localisation and preserving code style

[Götz Becker]

I am currently learning LV and therefore I try to understand every VI I can get my hands on. After reading some code style guidelines, I try to focus more on style. With this in mind I look at all the sample code I downloaded from all over the web.

The attached picture shows an example of how weird some VI sometimes look if opened in the german version of LV. Probably this VI looks much better in the english version (e.g. no overlaped subvis).

How badly can this affect portability and reuseability of LV code between different languages versions of LV? Any experiences?

Or is it minor enough to forget about it?

Greets

GB

[aledain]

This one's a biggy ;-)

It does not affect the cross platform compile of the code AT ALL.

It actually depends on the Fonts (and therefore the language I guess) in how the clusters and property nodes are displayed in the block diagram (BD) and front panel (FP). Both the fonts you have on your machine and the fonts set in the LV environment have an impact. For example if you leave the fonts alone in the VI, then it will use (variously) the SystemFont, DialogFont and ApplicationFont defaults, depending on what you are looking at (ie control, proprty node, etc). Now if the VI you have opened was "aligned" with a different font then you can expect that some of the nodes will have moved or changed shape if your font does not match theirs.

You can always set your font defaults to be Arial,14 which is the most cross platform of fonts, and as long as you instruct your develoment buddies to do the same the BD and FP controls won't look too much different across platforms. OTOH if you use AWeirdArcana font, and line everything up, then the BD and FP can look a little odd when opened under a standard LV system, with its default font selection.

N.B. You can force the fonts in a built application by including the same font tags copied from labview.ini in your applications ini file.

[aledain]

After reading some code style guidelines, I try to focus more on style.

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As an after thought "style" in LV can mean many things but in general the most important are the general left to right readability, don't wire backwards and, of course, good data flow.

cheers, Alex.

[didierj]

In your case it does not depend on fonts but it is due to the translation from english to german. This vi was written with an english LV environment and you now imported it in a german LV environment.

As a general rule in computing, a translation from english to german or french needs 50 - 100% more place. That's why your elements overlap each other.

The code itself isn't touched. It just looks crappy and needs much more place when programming. That's why I switched my LV version to english (as a side-effect it is even a few bucks cheaper).

Didier

[Götz Becker]

Thx for all your replies.

Next time I have the option, I