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 the general steps of the SDLC

We have briefly touched on the steps of the SDLC. However, we have not dived into what they are or what they consist of. This section is dedicated to exploring the steps in the SDLC so we can implement them.

Requirements/planning

If you ask a person off the street or an inexperienced software developer what the most important aspect of developing software is, chances are, they will answer coding. It makes sense since software development is about developing software after all. However, two steps must be completed before you or another developer even thinks about touching a keyboard. The first of which is the requirements/planning phase. Some break this phase into two distinct phases while others simply call this an analysis phase. Regardless of whether you consider this a phase or phases, it is the backbone of the project. In short, without this step, you simply do not have a project. If the SDLC is a building, the requirements/planning...