JP2003271396A - Program for control and its developing tool - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a program for control whose developing efficiency and maintenance performance are high corresponding to a multi-task and its developing tool. <P>SOLUTION: In noticing a message between processes or threads, both an instruction code indicating the instructions of procedures necessary for a series of processing and associated data are stored in an area called a packet, and the instructions are successively executed. The function of the arbitrary thread of an arbitrary process can be called from the instruction code of the packet. As a means for realizing the development of the program for control, the packet is generated from contents described by a script, and a developing tool for executing the instruction code stored in the packet is prepared. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multitasking control program and its development tool.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a message notification is transmitted by storing only the data required for one notification in a transmission area. The area is discarded after the message is received and the data is extracted from the area, or after the processing by the extracted data is performed. That is, message transmission / reception was only a means of notifying data transmission and timing between threads.

[0003]

However, the conventional source program is a fragmentary description of processing corresponding to individual events such as a message notification reception event and an external notification, and the source program is a process or thread. If it is different, it is often divided into multiple files. Therefore, in order to read these source programs and understand the actual operation, the source and destination of the message are searched from among the multiple source programs, and they are linked and the fragmentary processing contents are connected. Therefore, the work of grasping the entire flow is required, which causes the productivity of modification and maintenance to be significantly reduced.

[0004]

Therefore, according to the present invention, in order to solve the problem in the prior art, when data is transferred between processes or threads, only data is stored in the area to be transferred. Instead, both the instruction code for executing a series of processes and the data to be passed are stored, and the series of processes is executed in accordance with the stored instructions. In addition, the present invention, when passing data between processes or threads,
Instead of storing only data in the area to be passed, both the variable indicating the current instruction execution step or the state being executed and the data to be passed are stored, the instruction code is placed in another area, and according to the instruction It is characterized by executing a series of processes. Then, the present invention provides the functions of receiving a packet, which is an area for storing an instruction code and data, executing an instruction, and transmitting a packet to a thread executing the next instruction, in each thread in the control program according to the first and second aspects. Is characterized by having. Furthermore, the present invention is a development tool for generating a control program, which describes a series of processes in a script,
It is characterized in that a script can call a function executed in any thread of any process, and the script is converted into an instruction code and then executed. The difference between the above process and thread will be briefly described. One process is created by executing one application program. A multi-thread system enables multi-task processing within the same process, and a unit of task execution in this case is called a thread. A process has one or more threads. In addition, the above-mentioned script generally means a simple language in which simple logic is described so that processing can be realized in order to complement the function of an application.

[0005]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a control program according to the present invention as defined in claim 1. The packet has a storage area of the executing step 1a, an instruction code area 1b, and a data area 1c. In the control program according to the second aspect, as a modification of FIG. 1, even if the instruction code area 1b is placed in an area other than the packet, an operation equivalent to that of FIG. 1 can be performed.

The instructions in the packet are sequentially executed by the thread 2. When the thread 2 executes the instruction of the current step with reference to the packet 1, the thread 2 increments the executing step 1a which is a variable indicating the step to be executed next. When the processing of another thread 2 appears in the instruction to be executed next, the packet 1 is transmitted (posted) to the next thread. Since the above-described function of automatically processing a packet is incorporated as a function of the packet processing object 2d from which the thread is derived, as shown in FIG. 2, all threads can process the packet. . In addition, one thread 2 is basically associated with one external device (functional unit 3). But,
The thread 2 does not necessarily have to correspond to an external device, and may perform processing executed in the background, display in the main thread, and input from the user. Any one of the packets is used until the series of processing is completed.
Held in one thread.

The user writes in the script the instructions that the packet will execute. In the script, the flow of the rough processing is described, and for the detailed processing, the function called in each thread is called from the script and described in it. The script is stored in the script file 4.

As described above, by making it possible to call a function designated by an arbitrary thread from a script, an actual work such as a production line in which a plurality of units cooperate to sequentially process a workpiece. The system often seen above can be described concisely in a program. In other words, it is not necessary to describe the response to the event piece by piece as in the conventional case, and it is sufficient to describe the procedure for executing the processing in order as a script.

Next, the concept of modeling according to the present invention will be described. (1) One thread 2 is associated with the functional unit 3 representing one external device. The operation peculiar to each functional unit is described as the function 2c of the derived class of the packet processing object in FIG. (2) When an event that triggers a series of processing occurs, such as a change in sensor input such as work input or a button click on the screen, a packet 1 for processing the event is generated. (3) Describe the packet processing procedure in the script file 4. The script has the following features: Ability to call the function of any thread of any process, and
It is a function of referring to variables in the data area 1c, assigning them, evaluating expressions, judging conditions, and jumping. (4) When a certain thread progresses processing, another thread is requested to perform work, and a new sub-routine packet is generated when waiting for completion. (5) When the series of operations are all completed, the packet is discarded.

The entire system will be described as a combination of the above operations. This processing method is similar to the business in a company that issues a voucher and proceeds with processing across multiple departments.

The structure of this development tool is as follows: the script processing program 5 shown in FIG. 3, the library of the packet processing program 2b shown in FIG. 4, and the packet management DLL shown in FIG.
8 and debug tool 16. In addition to this, a commercially available C ++ compiler is used.

FIG. 3 shows the operation of the script processing program 5. The script processing program 5 reads the script 4 described by the user, generates an instruction code 7, and outputs it to a file. Also, a template (empty function) of a function that is called from a script and executed by a thread is generated in the source program 6. If there is no target source program 6, a new source program 6 including a function template is automatically generated. The user describes the processing to be executed in each thread in the generated template.

FIG. 4 shows the operation of the packet processing program 2b. The packet processing program receives packets,
It executes instructions, posts packets to other threads, and manages packet wait states.

FIG. 5 shows the operation of the packet management DLL 8. The packet management DLL manages packet generation, discarding, and area validity checking throughout the application. This DLL reads and stores the instruction code 7 when the system is activated. At the time of generating a packet at the time of execution, a storage area for both an instruction and data is secured in a memory, and then an instruction code is copied to the area of packet 1 for initialization. Then, it posts to the first instruction execution thread.

The debug tool 16 has three functions: script step execution, breakpoint setting function, debug message display function, and management information display function of the packet management DLL 8. The script step execution and breakpoint setting functions are used for debugging the script itself. The debug message display function displays the message content of the Trace statement described in the thread source program. The management information display function of the DLL displays the allocation status of the shared memory, the information of the packet existing in the system, and the information of the window or thread that executes the packet.

FIG. 6 shows the flow of development by this development tool. (1) The thread, packet name and ID to be used are defined in the project management file 9. (2) Script of each packet is script file 4
To describe. (3) The script processing program 5 is executed. By the script processing program 5, the project management file 9, the script file 4, the header of the thread,
If the thread source 6a exists, the corresponding file is read, and the thread ID definition file, the packet structure definition file, the packet size definition file 10, the thread header, the thread source 6, and the instruction code file 7 are read.
Is output. A template of the function called from the script is generated in the header and source of the thread output here. (4) A description is added to the template of the function generated in the thread source 6 and the processing to be executed is described in the function. Next, when the script processing program 5 is executed, the edit content 6a of the source 6 is read, and the edit content of the script 4 is also reflected to generate the source 6 of the new thread. The script processing program is also executed when the script 4 is modified. (5) Compile and link to execute exe file 1
Create 4.

EXAMPLES Table 1 shows the results of comparison of the development man-hours of the control program of the present invention and the control program of the prior art in the automatic operation control printing machine. By using the development tool of the present invention, although the process is divided into two for improving reliability, the development man-hour can be reduced to half or less of the conventional one.

[0017]

According to the present invention, a control system of a production line in which a plurality of units work in cooperation to sequentially process a work can be simply modeled on a program. As a result, the efficiency of design in such fields is increased.

Further, since the coding can be performed according to the flow of processing, it is easy to understand and the coding and debugging time can be shortened.

Further, in this method, the process flow can be easily grasped by the script, so that the productivity is improved even during maintenance or modification.

Further, there is an advantage that it is easy to deal with a change in the system configuration such as separating the process performed by the background thread into another process. That is, since the passing of data between the main thread, threads other than the main thread, and threads of other processes can be described in a uniform style, it is less likely to be restricted by the type of thread and the degree of freedom in system design is increased.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a control program of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a relationship between a thread class hierarchy diagram and a user-defined function called from a packet.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a script processing program.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a packet processing program.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining a packet management DLL.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the flow of development by the development tool of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 packet 1a executing step 1b instruction code area 1c data area 2 thread 2a basic function as a thread 2b packet processing program 2c user-defined function 2d packet processing object 3 functional unit 4 script file 5 script processing program 6 thread header, thread Source 7 Instruction code file 8 Packet management DLL 9 Project management file 10 Thread ID definition file, packet structure definition file, packet size definition file 11 User editing work 12 Compile and link 13 User added source file 14 exe file 15 Execution 16 Debug tools

[Table 1] 1 is a table comparing development man-hours with conventional technology.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. When data is transferred between processes or threads, not only the data is stored in the transfer area, but both the instruction code for executing a series of processing and the transfer data are stored. Then, the control program is characterized by executing a series of processes in accordance with the stored instructions. 2. When data is transferred between processes or threads, not only the data is stored in the area to be transferred, but a variable indicating the current instruction execution step or the state during execution of the instruction and the data are transferred. A control program that stores both data, places an instruction code in another area, and executes a series of processes according to the instruction. 3. The control program according to claim 1, wherein each thread has a function of receiving a packet that is an area for storing an instruction code and data, executing an instruction, and transmitting a packet to a thread that executes a next instruction. The control program according to claim 1 or 2, wherein 4. A development tool for generating a control program, wherein a series of processes can be described in a script, and the script can call a function executed by an arbitrary thread of an arbitrary process. 4. The development tool according to claim 1, wherein the development tool is executed after being converted into an instruction code.