Patent ID: 7725877

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for creating a first graphical program, the method comprising: utilizing a computer to perform: receiving first user input specifying a target device for the first graphical program, wherein the first graphical program comprises a plurality of interconnected nodes that visually indicate functionality of the first graphical program; displaying a first I/O node in the first graphical program in response to second user input, wherein the first I/O node includes associated generation code for automatically generating execution-time code associated with the first I/O node; receiving third user input specifying at least one I/O resource of the target device, wherein the third user input specifying at least one I/O resource of the target device assigns an alias to the first I/O node, wherein the alias indicates the specified I/O resource and further indicates an assigned one of a plurality of I/O configurations, each specifying a respective configuration of the specified I/O resource; configuring the first I/O node to perform an I/O operation via the specified at least one I/O resource during execution of the first graphical program; modifying an appearance of the first I/O node to reflect said configuring, wherein the modified appearance of the first I/O node indicates a type of the at least one I/O resource; and the generation code associated with the first I/O node executing to automatically generate first execution-time code based on the specified at least one I/O resource and the indicated I/O configuration, wherein the automatically generated first execution-time code is associated with the first I/O node in the first graphical program, and wherein the automatically generated first execution-time code is executable to provide I/O to or from the at least one I/O resource.