Quick VIAN released on VIPM

A while back I wrote about a tool that I had created to quickly run VI Analyzer only on changed files. At the time I made a VIPM package and posted a link to the GitLab Repository. I finally decided to release it on VIPM.

What problem does it solve?

The first problem Quick VIAN solves is using VIAN can take a long time. It solves this problem by only running on the subset of your VIs that have changed according to Git (It does assume you are using Git). It launches quickly from QuickDrop. It further presents you with a tree view and lets you select or deselect entire branches. This makes it easy to do things like ignore your test code, which also speeds up the whole process.

The second problem Quick VIAN solves is that it lowers the chance of merge conflicts. Running VIAN assumes that you are probably going to fix the problems that you find. Quick VIAN ensures that VIAN is only run on files that have changed with regards to this particular commit or a particular branch. You are not going to be tempted to change files that you haven't already touched, which would increase the risk of merge conflicts.

How to use it?

After you install it from VIPM, you can open it from QuickDrop using CTL+Q. You should be in a project that is in the root folder of a Git repository.

The GUI is pretty easy and intuitive to use. It's got a nice wizard to guide you through it.

On the first screen, you simply enter what you want to diff against in Git. There is a dropdown that lists all of the available branches detected in Git. You can enter free-form text in the dropdown if you know what you are doing. Otherwise, there are really 2 scenarios here:

• You made some changes and want to run VIAN on those changed files before you commit them. In this case, select HEAD
• You are about to merge into another branch and want to make one nice cleanup commit where you run VIAN against everything you have changed on your branch. In this case, select the branch you want to merge into.

Which one you choose is kind of a philosophical thing. Do you want to tidy as you go, making sure each commit is pristine as you put it in? In this case each commit is going to be a mix of feature code and code cleanup. Or, do you want to do one large cleanup effort at the end? In this case, the majority of your commits will be adding features and all the cleanup will be in one commit at the end. It is also possible to do both - you can QuickVIAN on the changes in each commit and then on the entire branch before you merge.

The next screen gives you a tree view where you can double click to select or deselect individual items or entire branches.

Next, you select the VIAN Config file you want to use. This gets remembered on a per-project basis. It defaults to a paired-down config that ships with QuickVIAN and is stored in .vilib. Pressing forward here runs the test specified in the config file.

FeedBack

If you like the project, please add a star on VIPM.io If you have any suggestions for improvements, feel free to reach out (either via email, here in the comments, or via a GitLab issue).

And as always if you need any help taming some legacy code, let's talk. Use the connect button below to reach out.