[Cialug] Any Industrial folks around?

[Morris Dovey]

On 7/5/11 11:08 AM, L. V. Lammert wrote:

> Have a potential project to create a few conveyor controller
> applications - does anyone do/support them currently?
>
> Need things like:
>
> 1) Debugging capability and/or IDE
> 2) RS232 management & debugging support
> 3) Operator GUIs [HMIs]
> 4) Web status pages (3&4 may be combined)
>
> My biggest problem is that I have never seen a debug-capable environment
> that was as usable as VBA from a simplicity standpoint, so what options
> might exist in OSS?

I'm not sure what you're asking for - and will note that "usability" and 
"simplicity" are matters of individual perception. :-)

I've never written a VBA, but can say that:

[1] IDE's abound (STFW), and the gcc tool chain includes DBG. FWIW, I've 
never felt the need to use either. I _have_ written specific Q&D 
routines to expose problems that off-the-shelf debuggers couldn't help 
with (usually timing, multi-threading, or memory-drain in RT systems).

[2] RS232 has long been an over-solved problem. RTFM, figure out what 
you need, and then STFW and download the code that best meets your 
requirements.

[3] HMI depends on the requirements; and solutions range from a simple 
program running in an xterm window to a monstrous eye-candy application.

[4] could be as simple as a tiny cgi program to create status pages as 
needed.