LabVIEW Style Book, The

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Drawing on the experiences of a world-class LabVIEW development organization, The LabVIEW Style Book is the definitive guide to best practices in LabVIEW development.

Leading LabVIEW development manager Peter A. Blume presents practical guidelines or “rules” for optimizing every facet of your applications: ease of use, efficiency, readability, simplicity, performance, maintainability, and robustness. Blume explains each style rule thoroughly, presenting realistic examples and illustrations. He even presents “nonconforming” examples that show what not to do–and why not.

Coverage includes

• Significance of style: How good style improves quality and actually saves time over the full project life cycle
• Before you code: Configuring your LabVIEW environment, and organizing your files on disk and in the LabVIEW project
• LabVIEW project specifications: A specialized standard for specifying LabVIEW application requirements
• Efficient VI layout and development: front panel, block diagram, icons, and connectors
• Data structures: Choosing data types, efficient use of arrays and clusters, and special considerations with nested data structures
• Error handling strategies: Trapping and reporting errors for robust and reliable applications
• Design patterns: Standard VI architectures and application frameworks that promote good style
• Documentation: Essential rules for source code documentation and streamlining the process
• Code reviews: Enforcing a style convention using a checklist, the LabVIEW VI Analyzer Toolkit, and peer reviews
• Appendixes: Convenient glossary and style rules summary

This book will be indispensable to anyone who wants to develop or maintain quality LabVIEW applications: developers, managers, and end users alike. Additionally, it will also be valuable to those preparing for NI’s Certified LabVIEW Developer or Certified LabVIEW Architect exams, which contain significant content on development style.

Foreword by Darren Nattinger 

Preface 

Acknowledgments 

About the Author 

Chapter 1          The Significance of Style 

Chapter 2          Prepare for Good Style 

Chapter 3          Front Panel Style 

Chapter 4          Block Diagram 

Chapter 5          Icon and Connector 

Chapter 6          Data Structures 

Chapter 7          Error Handling 

Chapter 8          Design Patterns 

Chapter 9          Documentation 

Chapter 10        Code Reviews

Appendix A       Glossary 

Appendix B       Style Rules Summary 

Index 

Downloads

Because this book is printed in black and white, you cannot see the full effect of the color examples. So that you can see a representation of the color schemes used by the author, we have placed color versions of some of the example figures here for download. (Images Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.)

CHAPTER 3:

Section 3.3, “Color”

Figure 3-12

Section 3.5, “Examples”

Figure 3-14A

Figure 3-14B

Figure 3-17

Figure 3-18

CHAPTER 5:

Section 5.1, “Icons”

Figure 5-3

Figure 5-4

Figure 5-5

Figure 5-6A

Figure 5-6B

Figure 5-7

Figure 5-8

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Section 5.2, “Connector Pane”

Figure 5-10

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Section 5.3, “Examples”

Figure 5-14A

Figure 5-14B

Figure 5-15A

Figure 5-15B

Figure 5-16A

Figure 5-16B

Figure 5-17A

Figure 5-17B

Figure 5-17C

Figure 5-18A

Figure 5-18B

Figure 5-18C

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Figure 5-19B

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Figure 5-21A

Figure 5-21B

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Figure 5-25

Author's Site

Visit the author's web site at www.bloomy.com/lvstyle/.

Sample Chapter(s)

Download the sample chapter

Index

Download the Index

Preface

Download the Preface

Foreword

Download the Forward

Table of Contents

Foreword by Darren Nattinger  xv

Preface xvii

Acknowledgments  xx

About the Author  xxii

Chapter 1          The Significance of Style  1

Chapter 2          Prepare for Good Style  21

Chapter 3          Front Panel Style  47

Chapter 4          Block Diagram  87

Chapter 5          Icon and Connector  129

Chapter 6          Data Structures  157

Chapter 7          Error Handling  203

Chapter 8          Design Patterns  239

Chapter 9          Documentation  299

Chapter 10        Code Reviews  319

Appendix A       Glossary  339

Appendix B       Style Rules Summary  349

Index  357