Which programming language

Potter · Sep 8, 2005

I’ve been thinking about going to night school to learn a higher level language to go with my PLC programming skills, but could use some advise on which language would be best. My local college offers courses in Visual Basic and C++.

I’m sure most people reading this are thinking something like "Well it depends on exactly what you want to do". The thing is I don’t have anything particular in mind, I’d just like peoples opinions on which language is generally more useful to someone working in automation.

Borte · Sep 8, 2005

I would go with VB since this is easier and very common. It's also included in apps like Office and other programms supporting VBA.

Scada programs like WInCC also uses vb (from version 6 and up).

Cheers
Borte

Ken Moore · Sep 8, 2005

I agree that VB will help with PLC's.

However, I like the language PERL for PC applications. Perl is not platform dependant, will run on Linux, or Windoze, PC's. There are many free sites where you can download everything you need to learn Perl, for FREE!

Borte · Sep 8, 2005

Can PERL handle ActiveX objects? Becaus a lot of suppliers can give you ocx's that you van use directly in your application.

Cheers
Borte

HenryLamboo · Sep 8, 2005

It depends; if it is .Net it doesn’t matter the IDE’s from the languages are the same.
Otherwise if it is not .Net go for VB.
If it is not .Net it is much easier to create an graphical application in VB and there is a lot of source code available on internet for VB.

jstolaruk · Sep 8, 2005

Borte said:
Can PERL handle ActiveX objects? Becaus a lot of suppliers can give you ocx's that you van use directly in your application.

Cheers
Borte

You may be able to by using PERLCOM, a PERL extension to support COM objects. But you'll lose the cross platform capability (if thats important).

Lancer · Sep 8, 2005

Hey Potter

How’s thing’s? Hope you are ready for the fifth test to decide the Ashe’s, should be a douser!

If you want to get into programming RAD (Rapid Application Development) is the way to go. Borland currently make two products that lead the way in this area, they are C++ Builder and Delphi and both are class-oriented languages( or Object oriented), which are similar to the Windows API.

Builder as the name suggest use C++ as it native tongue, and Delphi’s is Pascal. Both languages are easy to pic up and similar in their structure. There is a heap of info on the web, and I think you can download older versions of each from Borland’s Home page fully functional for no cost.

I use C++ Builder mostly and have had great success in writing small SCADA type app’s that talk to PLC’s (AB through DF1 protocol). Its great fun and you will be amazed how quickly you will find a “reason” for wanting to learn higher level language.

There is currently talk that Borland is going to merge the two programs into one to save all the hassles of releasing newer versions of each, should be a killer app.

Lance

jstolaruk · Sep 8, 2005

Lancer said:
There is currently talk that Borland is going to merge the two programs into one to save all the hassles of releasing newer versions of each, should be a killer app.

another reason to keep plunking along with my Delphi 5.0

That compiler and RSLogix is responsible for 99% of my after-hours income; they just keep on going.

Gerry M · Sep 8, 2005

I would go with VB over C++. That is just a personal preference. I think VB is a little easier to produce an application with in a reasonable time frame. I use VB.net now.

Many languages will do what you need. As you can see by the responses. If I were to choose another language to use, I would try Delphi as suggested above.

While you are learning the language get some education in good programming techniques. I suggest reading Code Complete by Steve McConnell.

Learning how to program well is more important than which language to use.

Lesa · Sep 18, 2006

x

sorry, wrong topic. Sorry!

rdrast · Sep 18, 2006

If you are looking into the 'Visual' group of languages, don't ignore C#. It is much more powerful than VB, while being a very capable language, it isn't nearly as difficult to jump into as C or C++.

You can still download any of the Visual development tools from Microsoft currently (free of charge).

Which programming language

Potter

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Borte

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Ken Moore

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Borte

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HenryLamboo

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jstolaruk

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Lancer

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jstolaruk

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Gerry M

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Lesa

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rdrast

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