Limits of current languages in industrial automation
Today’s development tools used for
PLC programming can difficultly benefit from innovations in computer
science that are used for the development of safe, maintainable and
reusable applications. Indeed, they don’t offer any object-oriented
approaches, strong typing or genericity. This is due to the
languages used to program PLCs, which are proprietary and
incompatible. These languages have been influenced by the strong
electrotechnical background of their first users and, as a
consequence, they offer a low level of abstraction. The goal of the
GLIPS language – which is a pivot in all tools offered by Itris
Automation – is to go beyond the limits of existing
languages.

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Characteristics of the GLIPS language
The GLIPS language has been defined
according to precise specifications. Its main goal is to reduce the
cost of development of control/command applications while taking
into account all steps of the software lifecycle. To do so, the
GLIPS language is based on the following concepts:
- Being able to benefit from computer
science advanced methods. The GLIPS language offers abstraction
mechanisms that allow an easy usage of advanced computer science
methods. This high-level of abstraction is key to reduce the
semantic gap between design and coding.
- Allowing an intrisically safe
coding. The GLIPS language is strongly typed. Its compiler does
many consistency checks, thus finding errors as early as possible
when they are the cheapest to fix. As shown below, the GLIPS
language uses a package mechanism as well as a clear separation
between algorithms and implementation in the hardware. It is also
based on an execution machine that distinguishes the synchronous
and asynchronous parts of an application, allowing the usage of
formal verification methods on the synchronous and reactive part.
- Being portable on machines with
various architectures. The GLIPS language aims at uniting systems
based on PLCs and real-time embedded systems. The abstraction
provided by the execution model of GLIPS is generic enough to be
implemented efficiently by both PLCs and other systems used for
embedded applications. This portability is at the heart of PLC
Converter translation capabilities.
- Allowing reusable software
components. Thanks to its abstraction, genericity and portability
mechanisms, the GLIPS language is a perfect tool for the creation
of reusable software components for various architectures.
Developing an application with the GLIPS language can thus be done
by assembling several components.
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