Patent ID: 8307330

Claim:
A method comprising: using a computer to implement: creating a first graphical program in response to user input, wherein the first graphical program includes a plurality of interconnected nodes, wherein the interconnected nodes visually indicate functionality of the first graphical program, wherein the first graphical program is type generic; wherein each of the nodes comprises at least one of an input or an output, and wherein for at least a first subset of the nodes, input(s) and/or output(s) for the first subset are not restricted to a specific data type; wherein the first graphical program is executable to perform the functionality for a plurality of different types; wherein the first graphical program comprises one set of graphical code that performs the functionality for the plurality of different types; instantiating a plurality of instances of the first graphical program in a second graphical program, wherein each instance is a type-specific graphical program; determining if two or more of the instances have same data types; if two or more of the instances have the same data types, replacing one or more of the instances with a reference to a particular instance of the first graphical program with the same data types.