Overview

Most programmers hold documentation in the same regard as root canal surgery. Meanwhile, users hold documentation dear to their hearts. The only resolution is for you, the LabVIEW programmer, to make a concerted effort to get that vital documentation on disk and perhaps on paper. This chapter describes some of the documentation tools and formats that have been accepted in commercial LabVIEW software.

The key to good documentation is to generate it as you go. For instance, when you finish constructing a new subVI, fill in the Get Info VI description item, described later. Then when you want to put together a software maintenance document, you can just copy and paste that information into your word processor. It's much easier to explain the function of a VI or control when you have just finished working on it. Come back in a month, and you won't remember any of the details.

If you want to write commercial-grade LabVIEW applications, you will find that documentation is at least as important as having a well-designed program. As a benchmark, budget 25 percent of your time on a given contract for entering information into various parts of VIs and the production of the final document.

VI Descriptions

CLAD The VI description in the Documentation dialog box from the VI Properties is often a user's only source of information about a VI. Think about the way that you find out how someone else's VIs work, or even how the ones in the LabVIEW...