Unlocking the Power of ST
Alright, now it’s time for the fun stuff! Now that we have a solid foundation in program design, computer science, hardware, and so on, we can get into the exciting material and start writing code. This chapter is going to be dedicated to installing the software that you’ll need to write PLC code, as well as taking an in-depth look at Structured Text (ST).
ST, is, for lack of a better word, feared by many PLC programmers, as it can be intimidating. However, ST does not have to be something to be afraid of. In fact, for many applications, ST can be easier to use and understand than the more popular Ladder Logic (LL or LD) programming language. What you’ll find in this chapter is that ST bears a very close resemblance to the pseudocode we used in Chapter 5, so if you skipped over that chapter or didn’t fully grasp the information presented, it’s a good idea to return to it until you feel comfortable with that material.
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