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

Summary

In this chapter, we have explored libraries. We have learned what they are, how to use them, what third parties are, basic development principles, and so on. You should now be able to use libraries from external sources or create your own. What you will find is that by using libraries, you can now truly port code to different projects and cut down on your overall development time and effort.

There is a lot more to libraries, such as namespaces and so on, that was not explored in this chapter. A whole book could be dedicated to this subject. It is recommended that you explore libraries more on your own, as this chapter was just a crash course to get you familiar with the concept and consumption of libraries.

After covering many of the foundational elements of developing PLC software, we need to start exploring the software development life cycle so we can better manage the development of not only libraries but also entire codebases.