Better Differentiation Between How Controls and Indicators Appear on the Block Diagram

[Jacob_K]

Because of my poor eyesight I sometimes have a hard time differentiating between Controls and Indicators on the block diagram.  I also have a hard time reading the letters DBL because they are in orange.  I would prefer that they are in black. Currently the only difference is a thin border verses a thick border.  I think a better contrast would help users such as myself.  Here is a sample:

The same color scheme would need to apply to the symbols when you do not make the icon visible.

[RavensFan]

No. There is another difference.  The arrows show whether the data is coming out of it or into it.

[vitoi]

Nobody uses icon view for terminals.

[Matthias_H]

@vitoi: Most of the developers don't use icons, but there you have the same situation:

It's correct, the main indicator is the little arrow and not the border thickness.

[drjdpowell]

Perhaps just making the arrow larger, and getting higher contrast on the letters by using black (as suggested) would be enough?   I don't like the proposed color scheme; I use icons for terminals, but lots of my terminals are objects or type-defs with their own icon, which can't be colour-changed.  I'll kudo the general idea though.

[Jacob_K]

I will agree that most experienced veterans of LabVIEW do not use Icons.  In fact most go to the options menu and turn them off. However by default Icons are placed on the block diagram when you install LabVIEW.  New users, and users with poor eyesight (such as myself) are the ones mostly affected by the subtle differences that currently exist.  From a strictly user experience I would say that we need more contrast between Controls and Indicators so that the differences are very apparent. I think that it would benefit those with poor eyesight, those who prefer to use Icons, and New Users.

[X.]

Not an answer, but I personally do not use terminals. They are all stored into a dummy case structure whose selector is connected to a enum allowing me to group them by function (or panel, tab, etc).

All access to and fro an object is done via a Value Property node (I don't use local variable either). Maybe I am wrong in doing that (for instance PN are larger than terminal and even larger than icons). The read/write arrow is all I need. As I often use each item more than once, it saves me the time to look for the terminal in some hidden case or go back to the front panel and create a property node from them.

This being said, I am puzzled by your need to have an additional indication of whether the object you are looking at is a control or an indicator. Is its name not sufficient (added to your knowledge of what the VI does)? Plus, if the diagram you are looking at is laid out properly, read variables are to the left, written one to the right, and wires connected accordingly (to their right or left, respectively).

What you need is a diagram zoom tool, which has been requested many times over the years (and exists somehow already with the Bird's Eye View VI from Open G)

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> All access to and fro an object is done via a Value Property node (I don't use local variable either). Maybe I am wrong in doing that

You're slaughtering your performance. The Value property requires a thread swap to the UI thread, introduces a data copy on every read and every write, allows for zero optimization of the propagation of values between subVIs.

> I will agree that most experienced veterans of LabVIEW do not use Icons.

Many people make this assertion. I'd really like to see numbers.

[X.]

@ Aristos: OK, mostly on UI VIs. SubVIs are a different beast. And I try to avoid that for large structures...

[JackDunaway]

---

@Aristos Queue wrote:

> I will agree that most experienced veterans of LabVIEW do not use Icons.

Many people make this assertion. I'd really like to see numbers.

---

Here's a few hundred. 

For what it's worth, +1 to this idea for two reasons: improved usability, and a fundamental change to Terminals. (Additional improvements to spruce up Terminals)

[Darin.K]

I am starting to think that the icon/terminal view should be an IDE setting, not a property of the individual controls. Let me choose a view, then draw them all that way. I see what I want, not the whims of individual coders.