Implemenying Global constants through out a project or module in LABVIEW

Question

I am looking for the best method for implementing global constants in a project, the method I use now is to make a vi which returns a single indicator value that has been wired to a constant.  This works nicely but it seems like a lot of unnecessary overhead.  I was hoping for a way of performing something similar to a header file (*.h) in c which uses a #define preprocessed directive.  This has no overhead since it replaces the named constant with the global constant value.  A typedef is similar to this but it has the problem that the constant appears as a constant and does not allow for a custom icon to be associated with it.  I guess the ideal situation would be if typedefs allowed for custom icons on the block diagrams for constant instances.  Is this possible?  It would make coding much more readable.  A header file could be simulated with a library of typedefs (scripting might even allow a .h file to be auto-generated)  Any ideas on this.  Other solutions. 
Paul
Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA

Answer 1

I look forward to the new LV8 features, I hope to begin the migration process this winter when work slows down a little.  The only advantage to a preprocessed directive is that is will replace the code before processing (like cutting and pasting the value in place of the constant, with no function call overhead.  This could only be a problem with CPU intensive code.  See the following "toy" example.
//haven't been programming in c lately so don't jump on my syntax.
#define PI 3.14
void calculateManyCircleAreas()
float area = 0.0;
for (r=0;r<10000000;r++){area = (PI*r*r);
void calculateManyCircleAreas2()
float area = 0.0;
for (r=0;r<10000000;r++){area = (getPI()*r*r);}
float getPI(){return 3.14;}
the first example simply replaces the named constant with a value, while the second example uses a function call, requiring pushing the return value on the stack along with an Instruction pointer, and 2 required jumps in program flow.  Your solution is none the less the best I have seen and what I am using.  Labview used to have the same problem with commenting (ie placing code in a case statement and hardwiring it to a false Boolean) where the code was not removed by the complier but simply not executed (not quite the same thing) but this too looks to be fixed in LV8.
Thanks,
Paul
Paul Falkenstein
Coleman Technologies Inc.
CLA, CPI, AIA-Vision
Labview 4.0- 2013, RT, Vision, FPGA