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A comment on 2D Syntax. Parent comment

Re:2D Syntax by whatshisface on Thursday June 29, 2017 @12:02AM (#14660664)
The greatest horror I have ever witnessed in my life is Ladder Logic, a GUI-based language for industrial control. Lured in by the sweet scent of (supposedly) not having to learn anything new, thousands upon thousands of EEs were tricked into inflicting upon themselves one acyclic directed cuthulu-beard after another, as they amassed screenfulls and screenfulls of white boxes implementing one operation apiece. One of my colleagues was tasked with supporting such a system, and like the weary Atlas he shoulders the burden to this day.

Beware, you all, the siren song of squares labled "concatenate." They will only add to your troubles.

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Re:2D Syntax by brabel on Thursday June 29, 2017 @01:29AM (#14661008)
Most ladder logic editors allow you to see the code in structured text format. As a former PLC programmer I think you or your friend just didn't know it well... it's pretty good for what it does: control industrial machines.
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Re:2D Syntax by fest on Thursday June 29, 2017 @02:26AM (#14661192)
I too thought that ladder logic is horrible (and for certain tasks, it is).

Ladder logic predates PLCS though- essentially the same notation was used when relays were used to implement it, and EEs were fine with that.

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Re:2D Syntax by digi_owl on Friday June 30, 2017 @09:10AM (#14670447)
Yeah, this strikes me as being at the logic gate level, not the functions and expressions level.

That said, a complicating element is that PLCs can extend the basic diagram with custom blocks...

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