PLCopen wants comments on Coding Guidelines

July 28, 2015 - In 2013 a working group was started to create guidelines on the software construction process with a focus on IEC 61131-3 and the PLCopen extensions. The goal of this new working group is to provide the definition of Rules, Coding Patterns and Guidance how to use them in industrial automation.

Although there are coding guidelines for many programming languages, these are nearly non-existent for the important area of industrial control, e.g. IEC 61131-3 and its PLCopen extensions. Nevertheless, the software in de industrial environments becomes more and more important, the software projects become larger and the costs of errors increase. Software nowadays absorbs half of the initial project costs and between 40 to 80% deals with maintenance over the life cycle costs of the software.

Large automation companies have their own rules but many mid-size companies or newcomers are very interested in a helping hand as provided by these PLCopen guidelines. The rules will be very useful to train users and can be a good basis for universities to help them teach IEC 6113-3 programming more efficiently.

As a first result of this PLCopen working group, the Release for Comments of the Coding Guidelines is now published. PLCopen invites all interested parties to give feedback on this document until October 23, 2015. The document can be downloaded from the website.

About PLCopen

PLCopen was founded in 1992 as an independent worldwide association for industrial suppliers and users. It is the leading association resolving topics related to industrial control programming. PLCopen creates concepts to reduce the costs of industrial automation. These cost savings are realized in areas such as engineering, training, operation and maintenance. Together with its members, PLCopen creates specifications to materialize these concepts.

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