Overview

This meaty chapter will show you how to use some of the more advanced and powerful functions and structures of LabVIEW. LabVIEW has the capability to manipulate and store local and global variablesmuch like conventional programming languages. You will also see how you can make controls and indicators more flexible and useful by using their property nodes, which determine the behavior and appearance of front panel objects. You'll learn to how to detect events in LabVIEW with the powerful Event Structure, for more efficient handling of your VI's GUI interaction. We'll take a look at type definitions and why they will save you time. Then you will study two bread-and-butter programming patterns in LabVIEW: state machines and queued message handlers. You will learn about the powerful messaging and synchronization functions, such as queues, notifiers, and more. Finally, we'll look at some miscellaneous advanced topics, such as how to "comment out" code, how to work with sound and graphics, and some cool GUI widgets.

Goals

• Understand local, global, and shared variables, and know how and when to use them (and, more importantly, when NOT to)

• Be able to customize the appearance and behavior of your front panel objects using property nodes

• Learn about invoke nodes

• Be able to use the Event Structure to detect GUI events and write event-driven code

• Know what a typedef is, and how to make one

• Become familiar with standard programming patterns like the state machine and the queued message handler

• See how messaging and synchronization functions, such as queues and notifiers, provide you with powerful and invaluable programming tools

• Incorporate two fundamental LabVIEW programming patterns into your coding: state machines and queued message handlers

• Learn how to disable, or comment out, code using the Diagram Disable Structure

• Discover the cool GUI controls and widgets, including graphics and sound