Are globals really THAT evil?

[Ben]

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@JÞB wrote:

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@Ben wrote:

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@JÞB wrote:

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@Ben

...At least twice today I was chasing down all of the references to a global when I was confounded why "ctrl-e" was not working. Of course ctrl-e does not work when looking a the global itself that does not have a block diagram.

Ben

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It does have a block diagram Ben and it will execute

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I will let you explain that.

Ben

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WARNING! DO NOT GO HERE! Create a static reference to Global.vi 

Ctrl+double click 

Rinse out your eyes and forget what you saw.

(unless you want to write the call- chain and time to a log. which, you might want to do... You may be able to export the image of the FP never tried, but I would never try to read a value since that might recurse)

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That did not work for me in LV 2017.

Do you by any chance have scripting turned on?

I do not.

That could be handy for trying to chase down a race condition but ... now I am going to be repeating myself.

Ben

[crossrulz]

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@JÞB wrote:

WARNING! DO NOT GO HERE! Create a static reference to Global.vi 

Ctrl+double click 

Rinse out your eyes and forget what you saw.

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This was apparently fixed somewhere between LabVIEW 8.2.1 and LabVIEW 2016 (sorry, I do not have any more versions installed between those).  But messing around a little more in 8.2.1 shows that this works with ctrl files as well.  Errors in the block diagram also react as if you have an invalid control for both global VIs and ctrl files.

[Ben]

2013 will show me an empty BD as well as LV 2010.

I may be better off having never seen it since knowing myself I would have tried to exploit it only to find out it was "fixed".

Ben

[JÞB]

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@crossrulz wrote:

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@JÞB wrote:

WARNING! DO NOT GO HERE! Create a static reference to Global.vi 

Ctrl+double click 

Rinse out your eyes and forget what you saw.

---

This was apparently fixed somewhere between LabVIEW 8.2.1 and LabVIEW 2016 (sorry, I do not have any more versions installed between those).  But messing around a little more in 8.2.1 shows that this works with ctrl files as well.  Errors in the block diagram also react as if you have an invalid control for both global VIs and ctrl files.

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Fixed in 2014 as well!  But, there really is a block diagram - the IDE just doesn't let you get to it anymore.

[JÞB]

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@Ben wrote:

2013 will show me an empty BD as well as LV 2010.

I may be better off having never seen it since knowing myself I would have tried to exploit it only to find out it was "fixed".

Ben

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Yeah, how would you ever make changes to the BD after updating?

OT: Ben, There is a thread I want your input on. around a single edged flat surface

[Ben]

Like a Mobius strip or a disk?

Ben

[JÞB]

like a disk with the edge width perpendicular to the floor

[Darren]

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@JÞB wrote:

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@crossrulz

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Fixed in 2014 as well!  But, there really is a block diagram - the IDE just doesn't let you get to it anymore.

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Polymorphic VIs have a block diagram too, and it contains subVI calls to each of the instances. You used to be able to see that diagram too with a few tricks, but they closed that hole a while back as well.

[Ray.R]

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@Ben wrote:

I am trying to upgrade an application that was developed by some other person and I am getting smacked in the face by globals. Not because of the previous reasons but for a new reason that I want to add to the list.

At least twice today I was chasing down all of the references to a global when I was confounded why "ctrl-e" was not working. Of course ctrl-e does not work when looking a the global itself that does not have a block diagram.

Ben

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It is interesting the perspective on Globals.  One employee (CLA) is okay with them.  I'm...  euh... humm...

Well...  For a good portion of my LabVIEW career, I was debugging and refactoring cr@...-p... badly written by less than novice programmer who would use Globals as much as rain fills a river...  Globals for everything.  Wires??? Nah.... let's just use a Global or Local or a mix of both.  So many globals that it would make anyone turn green and evacuate those green global goblins at the end of the day...

Are Globals really that evil?  It's not the Globals its how they are used... 

I feel your pain Ben..