Change the Abort button glyph

[G-Money]

I think that the Abort button glyph should be changed. I see a lot of new LabVIEW programmers use the Abort button as a Stop button. Aborting normally works fine for very small applications or architectures that you learn in LabVIEW Core 1 but not for anything after that. Aborting a VI can leave things in states that you don't want to be in or references open. Sometimes you do need to Abort the code though (other programming environments use Abort buttons) so I don't think we can get rid of it entirely or should we.

I propose a compromise of changing the glyph on the Abort button to something other than a Stop sign. I think that some people associate it in the beginning of learning LabVIEW with properly stopping their running code. Unless they learn differently then they will continue to use the Abort button to stop their code. What the glyph could change to is entirely open for debate but I think that something other than a Stop sign might inform users that this isn't the proper way to be stopping code could help.

Here's my idea for the glyph but I know there's something better out there:

[CMal]

I like this idea, but I'm not sure about the skull and crossbones.  I did a search for "abort icon", and a lot of the results are an image of a red stop sign with a hand in it.  Maybe adding the hand would be adequate to better discourage users from aborting VIs.

[jorgeinSD]

G-Money! I was planning to submit this same idea today !

My suggestion for glyph is a lightning bolt striking the current stop sign.

Definitely gets my kudos!

[altenbach]

I am all for a change in some of these toolbar buttons.

This idea is closely related to the idea of hiding the continuous run button, and some of my contributions to that discussion would apply here equally. Also, when was the last time you used the "pause" button? A VI is not a VCR! (All we are missing is "rewind")

However, such suggestions are far reaching and for example would make all existing documentation and textbooks obsolete overnight. The new solution better be perfect and permanent and should be part of an overall redesign and modernization of the toolbar. The entire toolbar looks somewhat very antiquated!

My kudos here reflect the general agreement that change is needed in the toolbar. It's not an endorsement of any very specific graphic implementation (the skull is cute, though ;))

(I have some things in mind and might start a new idea once it is more developed. Stay tuned)

[James@Work]

Changing the view of the button is not the solution.
If your VI (or EXE) is complex and should NOT be aborted, then you should hide the Abort button.

VI Properties > Window Appearance > Customize > and uncheck "Show Abort button"

This is more of a developer skills/training issue than a problem with LabVIEW.

If you (the developer) are running the VI you should know what your VI can/cannot do.
If you are distributing it as a VI or application then you should remove the option.

IMHO

[AristosQueue (NI)]

How about the biohazard symbol on the stop sign?

[AristosQueue (NI)]

> Also, when was the last time you used the "pause" button? A VI is not a VCR! (All we are missing is "rewind")

I use pause when looking for performance hot spots... Monte Carlo testing for where the app is spending most of its time is surprisingly effective.

As for rewind, it has been proposed elsewhere in the Idea Exchange and would be a godsend if we could find a way to make it viable!

[altenbach]

I was under the impression that we were talking about the development environment. I agree, the toolbar has no business in a built application.

[G-Money]

This idea is for the development environement and I totally agree with customizing built application to not include 80% of the development toolbar and menu options.

[AristosQueue (NI)]

There's a more subtle problem in the dev environment. Suppose I configure a subVI to hide the Abort button because I know it is unsafe to abort that subVI. It does not affect the caller VI -- any caller VI should also, theoretically, hide the abort button if it uses a subVI that has the abort button hidden. It doesn't, meaning that there's still a way to call abort on the subVI. Therefore, upping the threat level indicated by the glyph would be appropriate. I wouldn't want to hide the abort button on the caller because there might be another section of the caller code where it is perfectly safe to hit abort and where hitting abort is desirable during debugging. Not sure what the best solution is here, but it is a tricky scenario.

[SteveChandler]

If you implement rewind don't forget fast forward. As for the topic maybe the button can look like a bomb.