National Instruments Corporation

Jason King

Andrew Philip Dove

Steve Rogers

Craig Smith

Greg McKaskle

B Craig Smith

Steven W Rogers

Kevin Hogan

A system and method for enabling a graphical program to receive and respond to programmatic events, such as user interface events. The graphical program may include a graphical user interface having various user interface elements and a block diagram having a plurality of nodes indicating functionality of the graphical program. The graphical program may be configured to receive and respond to one or more user interface events. For each event, a portion of graphical source code (such as a plurality of interconnected nodes) may be included in the block diagram, wherein the portion of graphical source code is operable to receive and respond to the respective user interface event. The portion of graphical source code may be executable to perform a desired process or action in response to the respective event. In one embodiment, a sub-program node may be associated with each event. In another embodiment, an event structure node may be included in the block diagram, wherein the event structure node includes one or more sub-diagrams, each sub-diagram including graphical source code for responding to one or more events.

Graphical programming system with event-handling nodes

One embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for enabling a graphical program to dynamically register one or more events during execution of the graphical program. An event registration node may be displayed in the block diagram of the graphical program. One or more events may be associated with the event registration node. The event registration node may be operable to dynamically register the one or more events during execution of the graphical program. Another embodiment of the invention comprises a system and method for enabling a graphical program to programmatically generate and respond to a user-defined event. The user may desire to define custom, i.e., user-defined, events for use in a graphical program.

User-defined events for a graphical programming environment

A system and method for propagating type information for hardware device nodes in a graphical program. A hardware device node may be any of various types of nodes relating to hardware devices and may perform any of various hardware-related functions in the graphical program, e.g., may access registers of a hardware device. After displaying a first hardware device node in the graphical program, the user may associate the first hardware device node with a hardware device. A second hardware device node may also be displayed in the graphical program, and the user may connect the first hardware device node to the second hardware device node. In response to connecting the first hardware device node to the second hardware device node, information may be propagated from the first hardware device node to the second hardware device node, wherein the information specifies the hardware device or device class with which the first hardware device node is associated. The second hardware device node may then be automatically, i.e., programmatically, associated with the same hardware device class with which the first hardware device node is associated. A method for performing type checking for a hardware device node in a graphical program is also described, e.g., to ensure that a method or property which the hardware device node is configured to invoke or access is a valid method or property for the hardware device or device class with which the hardware device node is associated.

System and method for performing type checking for hardware device nodes in a graphical program

A system and method for creating a graphical program which accesses registers of a hardware device. In one embodiment, a register access node or primitive may be included in a graphical program, such that when the graphical program is executed on the computer system, the register access node is operable to access (i.e., either read or write) registers of a hardware device in the computer system. The method may comprise first displaying a register access node in the graphical program in response to user input. For example, the user may select the register access node from a palette and drag and drop the register access node onto a window of the graphical program being created. The user may then configure the register access node to access one or more registers of a selected hardware device, e.g., by using a user interface for performing this configuration. In one embodiment, the computer may store a description of the hardware device, wherein the register access node uses the description of the hardware device to access registers of the hardware device during execution of the graphical program. In one embodiment, configuring the register access node may include displaying a list of registers or a list of fields of registers described in the description of the hardware device and receiving user input to select one or more of the registers from the list of registers. The list may also or instead comprise a list of mnemonic names of registers and/or a list of mnemonic names of fields in the registers. The user may thus configure the register access node to access selected registers described in the description of the hardware device.

System and method for accessing registers of a hardware device in a graphical program

Dynamic and user-defined events for a graphical program

A system and method for enabling a graphical program to receive and respond to programmatic events. The graphical program may include a graphical user interface having various user interface elements and a block diagram having a plurality of nodes indicating functionality of the graphical program. The graphical program may be configured to respond to one or more events. For each event, a portion of graphical source code may be operable to receive and respond to a respective event. The portion of graphical source code may be executable to perform a desired process or action in response to the respective event. In one embodiment, a sub-program node may be associated with each event. In another embodiment, an event structure node may be included in the block diagram, wherein the event structure node includes one or more sub-diagrams, each sub-diagram including graphical source code for responding to one or more events.

System and method for enabling a graphical program to respond to user interface events

One embodiment of the present invention relates to disabling graphical code in a graphical program. A first portion of the graphical program may be disabled, which may include preventing the first portion of the graphical program from being compiled and/or preventing the first portion of the graphical program from being executed. Another embodiment of the invention relates to conditionally compiling graphical code in a graphical program. A first portion of the graphical program may be compiled if one or more associated conditions are true, or may not be compiled otherwise.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Jason King