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Poll

Which combination of programming languages would you prefer to use in a future PLC?

Relay Ladder Logic
193 (34.1%)
Stage
93 (16.4%)
Sequential Function Charts (SFC)
65 (11.5%)
Structured Text/Basic
68 (12%)
Mnemonics/Assembly
17 (3%)
C/C++
27 (4.8%)
Java
10 (1.8%)
Function Block Diagram (FBD)
39 (6.9%)
Lua
1 (0.2%)
C#/VB.NET
35 (6.2%)
Other (please post a comment)
18 (3.2%)

Total Members Voted: 230

Author Topic: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?  (Read 136397 times)

franji1

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #60 on: November 30, 2009, 04:10:52 PM »
If the latter, I just randomly typed symbols from Shift+Nums, so it was actually Perl.
aka, APL  ;D.  Actually, A Programming Language had its own keyboard with symbols you don't see on a QWERTY keyboard or ASCII table.  Some implmentations had ASCII translations, but it was its own beast (see attached JPG)

PeeJay

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #61 on: December 10, 2009, 05:30:13 PM »
Pleeeeeeese give us another option other than ladder logic! It's driving me insane! ??? ??? Some sort of traditional language like c/basic or similar would be great. :)

franji1

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #62 on: December 10, 2009, 07:52:17 PM »
Pleeeeeeese give us another option other than ladder logic! It's driving me insane! ??? ??? Some sort of traditional language like c/basic or similar would be great. :)
Have you seen the WinPLC?  It's a 205 CPU that has Windows CE 2.12? on it.

MikeMc

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #63 on: January 02, 2011, 01:13:49 AM »
I don't know how many of you have had access to Allen Bradley RSLogix but after being forced into learning it, I have found many features that make life really easy. It would be nice to see something like this or the P3000 PLC software. Hopefully we will see something new come out for Directsoft in the near future, it is ok for programming but sometimes it seems a little backwards now.

Mike


b_carlton

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #64 on: January 02, 2011, 10:11:46 AM »
Which type of RSLogix (or which PLC) are you referring to? Which features of that programming package do you find especially useful when compared to Directsoft?
An output is a PLC's way of getting its inputs to change.

BobO

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #65 on: January 04, 2011, 04:25:58 PM »
Hopefully we will see something new come out for Directsoft in the near future, it is ok for programming but sometimes it seems a little backwards now.

Major development in the closing stages. New PLC, new control engine, new DSP. We are pumped about it, and we think our users will like it. That said, like Bernie, I would love to know what you like the best in the new RSLogix...
"It has recently come to our attention that users spend 95% of their time using 5% of the available features. That might be relevant." -BobO

Controls Guy

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #66 on: January 06, 2011, 12:01:32 PM »
Data view.    ;D
I retract my earlier statement that half of all politicians are crooks.  Half of all politicians are NOT crooks.  There.

odwyerpw

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #67 on: February 28, 2012, 12:34:22 PM »
Structured Text.  I love being able to write a supervisory control application directly on the plc that interacts with the real time control elements -- SFC, Function Blocks and Ladder.

skills_ark

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #68 on: June 29, 2012, 05:09:03 PM »
I like the RLL implemented in Directlogic processors so keep that. I absolutely love the stage programming capability DL has so keep that where it is at. The only 2 languages I would like to see added to a PLC is basically a DL205 type system capable of Function Block with multiple instance capability. Being able to build libraries of technical solutions in a function block that has parameters passed by value rather than reference is like being able to write whatever instructions suits a person best. It's hard to beat. Having SCL or some structured basic style language like QuickBasic or C would be nice but I would not use it most of the time.

    I like DS stage as much as SFC and don't see any differences apart from presentation. Without stage or reentrant FB with instance, it's hard to build a plc system that is threading 2 robots in the same space over a moving dial with various part programs issuable. 

franji1

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #69 on: June 29, 2012, 05:36:54 PM »
I like the RLL implemented in Directlogic processors so keep that. I absolutely love the stage programming capability DL has so keep that where it is at. The only 2 languages I would like to see added to a PLC is basically a DL205 type system capable of Function Block with multiple instance capability. Being able to build libraries of technical solutions in a function block that has parameters passed by value rather than reference is like being able to write whatever instructions suits a person best. It's hard to beat. Having SCL or some structured basic style language like QuickBasic or C would be nice but I would not use it most of the time.

    I like DS stage as much as SFC and don't see any differences apart from presentation. Without stage or reentrant FB with instance, it's hard to build a plc system that is threading 2 robots in the same space over a moving dial with various part programs issuable. 
I think you're gonna like our new CPU based on the MX Technology Preview.  It's still in the works, but we're in the final stretch.  It takes Stage to the next level, although it does not yet have a true stage EDITOR, but plans are for it in a future version of this PLC.

skills_ark

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #70 on: June 29, 2012, 06:09:29 PM »

  I have been playing with it the last couple of hours and I think it is going to be great. I noticed in the help file under tasks that functions with parameters passed by value OR reference is promised. Now THAT will really excite me.

franji1

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #71 on: June 29, 2012, 06:48:25 PM »

  I have been playing with it the last couple of hours and I think it is going to be great. I noticed in the help file under tasks that functions with parameters passed by value OR reference is promised. Now THAT will really excite me.
That won't be in the first version, but definitely planned for Rel 2.  Rel 1 supports modular programming with "program" code-blocks and "task" code-blocks.

The PLC already supports parameter values and references passed on the stack, along with local variables, but to get the "user experience" top-notch, we knew it was gonna take some real work.  For example, we want you to be able to quantify a numeric parameter type for a function in ANY of the following ways
BIT_OR_NUMERIC (any bit or any sized numeric including reals)
NUMERIC (real or integer)
REAL
INTEGER (any sized integer)
BIT_OR_INTEGER (any bit or integer)
SIGNED DWORD INTEGER (strong type, D memory in MX)
SIGNED WORD INTEGER (strong type, WX/WY analog memory in MX)
SIGNED BYTE INTEGER (strong type, no default data-blocks of this type, but you can create your own)
UNSIGNED WORD INTEGER (strong type, V memory in MX)
UNSIGNED BYTE INTEGER (strong type, no default data-blocks of this type, but you can create your own)

So if you had a parameter that was BIT_OR_NUMERIC, that could take X7, V22, R44, 3.14, 42, etc.  If you had something that was INTEGER, it would take V22 or 42, but not X7 nor R44 nor 3.14.  If the parm specified SIGNED WORD INTEGER it would take WX4 (16 bit signed analog input, which happens to be an signed 16 bit word integer) or 42 or -32768, but not 65535.

These details are all drawing board stuff planned for Rel 2, but you get the idea.

Controls Guy

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #72 on: July 01, 2012, 03:27:21 PM »
So if you had a parameter that was BIT_OR_NUMERIC, that could take X7, V22, R44, 3.14, 42, etc.  If you had something that was INTEGER, it would take V22 or 42, but not X7 nor R44 nor 3.14.  If the parm specified SIGNED WORD INTEGER it would take WX4 (16 bit signed analog input, which happens to be an signed 16 bit word integer) or 42 or -32768, but not 65535.

How does that work when using a module that actually has 16 bits of measurement resolution?  Will we need to do a math operation / cast to get it into U16?

Or are all of the 16-bit modules already bipolar-only?
« Last Edit: July 01, 2012, 03:31:11 PM by Controls Guy »
I retract my earlier statement that half of all politicians are crooks.  Half of all politicians are NOT crooks.  There.

BobO

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #73 on: July 01, 2012, 03:30:50 PM »
WX4:U
"It has recently come to our attention that users spend 95% of their time using 5% of the available features. That might be relevant." -BobO

Controls Guy

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Re: New Poll! Programming Language of Choice?
« Reply #74 on: July 01, 2012, 03:31:41 PM »
I retract my earlier statement that half of all politicians are crooks.  Half of all politicians are NOT crooks.  There.