JPS60186904A - Program input system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain input of both graphic and sentence type programs with the same operation by feeding both a graphic symbol and a key word of the same processing contents with the same key of a key input device. CONSTITUTION:A program is supplied through a tablet 12 and stored to an input buffer every sentence via an interface 16. A translator 18 analyzes the program and displays a source program at a screen image memory 15 of a display 11 and also stores it to an object buffer 19. These processings are carried out by a processor 13. When a key on the tablet 12 is pushed, the corresponding key code is fetched to an input buffer 17 and decided. If the key code contains a graphic symbol and a sentence key word, the type of the key is decided. Then the graphic symbol and the key word are displayed at a graphic program area and a sentence program area of the display 11 respectively.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a method for simplifying and increasing the efficiency of inputting a program in a programmable controller, etc., and particularly relates to a method for efficiently inputting a graphical program. This relates to a program input method.

[Background of the invention]

Conventionally, as a device capable of inputting programs in both graphical and textual formats, there is, for example, a programming console of a programmable controller (PC). For example, the relay ladder diagram program shown in FIG. 1 can be input as a graphic program, and the sentence format program shown in FIG. 2 can be input as a sentence program. The two types of programs are input using separate program input devices, respectively.

The program input method using the device as described above has the following problems.

First, graphical and textual program input use different equipment, and the program grammar and operating rules are also different, so the user must master the grammar and operating methods of both, and it is difficult to master them. It takes time.

Second, graphical program input and textual program input each have drawbacks.

In other words, the graphical program is 1. It has the advantage of being easy to read, but has the disadvantage that it is more complex to operate and takes more time to input than Bunijinki. Furthermore, inputting a program using sentences has the advantage of being as fast as a typewriter if one is skilled, but it has the disadvantage that the contents of the program cannot be understood at a glance.

[Purpose of the invention]

The purpose of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the above-mentioned prior art, to make it possible to manually input graphics-based programs and text-based programs with the same operation, and to compensate for the drawbacks of graphical program input and text-based program input. The objective is to provide a program input method that can make use of only its strengths.

[Summary of the invention]

In the program input method according to the present invention, a desired program is input using a key-powered device that allows graphic symbols and text keywords indicating the same processing content to be input using the same key, and for the input program, graphic symbols The program and the program in sentence format are displayed on the same screen of the display, and the desired program can be input with the same contents either in graphic symbol or sentence format.

In addition, in a program using graphic symbols, parts that have the same expression as a program in a sentence format are not displayed, thereby making it possible to create the program more efficiently by one person.

In addition, a cursor is displayed on both graphic symbol programs and sentence format programs, and both cursors are linked using cursor movement commands, so that the same and simple operation method can be used for both programs. It was designed so that it could be done.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of one embodiment of the language specification of the program input method according to the present invention.

This language is intended for describing sequence control,
For this purpose, there are instructions that indicate process transition conditions and instructions that indicate parallel operations. Some commands have both graphic symbol and statement keyword formats for the same process, while others have no graphic symbol format.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment of a tablet for the program input method according to the present invention.

This tablet is related to a key-powered device, and for command words that have both graphic symbol and sentence keyword formats, both formats are printed on one key1, which is unique for this type of key. [5TARTJrPARAcTJ
IWAITPARJ rENDPARACTJrWAI
There is TJ rIFJ rGOTOJ. In addition, there are keys for sentence keywords, keys for indicating calculations, keys for input/output names such as X, Y, 'R, numeric keys, cursor keys indicated by arrows, etc.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a display of a program input from the tablet of FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 5, a graphical program is displayed in the upper half of the screen, and a sentence program is displayed in the lower half. Both programs have the same statement numbers,
There are many ways to deal with this. Since only a few lines can be displayed at a time in the display area of a sentence-format program, new sentences are scrolled as they are input. The top sentence in the diagram is 103″Ninatteiruka, KotlJ:”10
1" and 102# have already been scrolled.Also, there is a cursor at "108", but the cursor is displayed in both the graphics program and the statement program, and both cursors are the same. Move by linking the sentence numbers.

In addition, °'101°I , ′i in the graphic program
l Q 5 tZ"107", 111"+7) '/
7 Hok ha, SE'r.

It is used to collectively indicate commands that do not have a graphical format, such as R8T, CALL, and assignment statements. In the graphics program, the contents of individual statements, such as the conditions of the WAIT statement, are not displayed.

This is because the conditional expression in the graphics program is the same as that written in sentences, and the statement program is also displayed on the same screen, so its display is omitted.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the input child J of the program shown in FIG.

In the figure, Kn is a carriage return key and indicates the end of one sentence. As shown in the figure, for keys on which both graphic symbols and keywords are printed, if you focus only on the keywords, you can input the program using exactly the same procedure as inputting a sentence program. Furthermore, if attention is paid to graphic symbols, programs can be created by drawing using graphic symbol keys.

Next, FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a program input device for realizing the program input method according to the present invention.

The program is input from the tablet 12 associated with the key human power device, and stored in the input buffer 17 one sentence at a time via the interface 16. The translator 18 is
The program is analyzed sentence by sentence and the source program is displayed on the screen image memory 15 of the display 11.

The contents of screen image memory 15 are sent to display 11 as a video signal via video interface 14. The translator 18 displays the source program on the display 11, converts it into an object program, and stores it in the object buffer 19. These processes are executed by the processor (CPU) 13.

Figure 8 shows the main processing of the program input device 1,000N7.
4v flowchart, which shows the flow of processing for inputting a source program from the tablet 12, displaying it on the display 11, and converting it into an object program.

First, when a key on the tablet 12 is pressed and the key code is taken into the input buffer 17, the key code is determined. If the key code has both a graphic symbol and a sentence keyword, the type of key is determined, and the graphic symbol is placed in the graphic program area at the top of the screen of the display 11 according to the key, and in the six sentence program area at the bottom. Show keywords in . Furthermore, if the key code has a graphic symbol, the characters are displayed in the sentence program area at the bottom of the key code.

After displaying in this way, the sentence structure is analyzed and objects are generated in the same way as a normal translator. This processing can be accomplished using a standard translator or compiler. That is, this method can be implemented by determining the key code before normal translation processing and simultaneously displaying the program in graphic and sentence format according to the code.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be obtained, and it can make a significant contribution to simplifying and increasing the efficiency of program input.

(1) Generally, there are two types of program creators.

That is, there are those who are skilled in programming and can create programs in sentence format, and those who have little experience in programming and do not understand English, and have difficulty creating programs in English sentences. According to this program input method, these two types of people can input programs using the same device and the same procedure in a way that suits them.

Therefore, prepare multiple program manual devices,
There is no need to maintain multiple operating methods, and the manual programming work becomes more efficient.

(2) Although this program input method uses graphics and is easy to understand, it can be done manually using the same steps as a normal sentence-based program. In other words, high-speed processing is possible using OCR and key punchers. In general, graphical simplified languages take time to operate even if they appear easy to operate, making them inefficient, especially for experienced programmers who are skilled in sentence-based programming. Generally speaking, drawing skills take more than twice as long as writing skills. This method solves these problems of conventional graphical simplified languages.

(3) According to this program input method, a graphic format program corresponding to a flowchart is automatically generated.

Since a flowchart requires a considerable amount of man-hours (10 to 30 pieces in total) to be produced as a program document, the effect of eliminating the need for its creation is extremely large.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a relay ladder diagram program,
FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an example of a sentence-format program, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an example of language specifications for the human-powered program according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a tablet for inputting the same program. FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the display of a program manually input from the tablet of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of the input procedure of this program, and FIG. FIG. 8, which is a block diagram of an embodiment of the program input device for realizing the program input method according to the present invention, is a flowchart of its main processing steps. 11...Display, 12...Tablet, 13
... CPU, 14 ... Hiteo interface, 15
...Screen image memory, 16...Interface, 17...Input buffer, 18...Translator, 19...$l Fixed LD Xσa ORγ10 IVn Xσl θθT Y/θ tρ γ16 ANI Tσ LD 70 6tir rt 5 3rd eye 4 Koya Otsu Koji Kasumiguchi Nihi Sen ■ Mouth Low Day ``■-Hihitadenenichi■- 21 day 11 day immediately [ ] [￥1 day - day day cause ■-1 Taguchi Japan Law U ■ Same 7th // Kaya 8th

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Inputting a desired program using a key manual device that allows graphic symbols and sentence keywords indicating the same processing content to be input using the same key, and inputting the input program using graphic symbols. A program input method in which a program and a sentence format program are displayed on the same screen of a display, and a desired program can be input with the same content in either graphic symbol or sentence format. 2. A program input method according to claim 1, in which a portion of a graphic symbol program that has the same expression as a sentence format program is not displayed. 3. In the device described in claim 1 or 2, a cursor is displayed on both a graphic symbol program and a sentence format program, and both cursors are linked by a cursor movement command. Program input method.