Book Image

Mastering PLC Programming

By : Mason White
Book Image

Mastering PLC Programming

By: Mason White

Overview of this book

Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a new feature of PLC programming that has taken the automation world by storm. This book provides you with the necessary skills to succeed in the modern automation programming environment. The book is designed in a way to take you through advanced topics such as OOP design, SOLID programming, the software development lifecycle (SDLC), library design, HMI development, general software engineering practices, and more. To hone your programming skills, each chapter has a simulated real-world project that’ll enable you to apply the skills you’ve learned. In all, this book not only covers complex PLC programming topics, but it also removes the financial barrier that comes with most books as all examples utilize free software. This means that to follow along, you DO NOT need to purchase any PLC hardware or software. By the end of this PLC book, you will have what it takes to create long-lasting codebases for any modern automation project.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Part 1 – An Introduction to Advanced PLC Programming
6
Part 2 – Modularity and Objects
10
Part 3 – Software Engineering for PLCs
14
Part 4 – HMIs and Alarms
19
Part 5 – Final Project and Thoughts

Investigating libraries

We have touched on libraries a bit in the introduction. However, there is a lot to libraries, and an in-depth knowledge of how they work is needed before we can proceed.

A library is a prebuilt code that can augment your code by allowing you to easily talk to hardware, perform networking, and so on, without having to write code. In many cases, especially when it comes to proprietary systems such as hardware components, it would be difficult or impossible to effectively write code to interface with it. Many hardware manufacturers will simply provide a library to interface with the device.

Why do we need libraries?

With that in mind, what is the purpose of a library? Libraries exist for multiple reasons, including the following:

  • To avoid developing the same functionality multiple times
  • To interface with custom or proprietary components
  • To augment existing code with third-party libraries
  • To distribute code to other developers
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