GRAPHIC OPERATING SURFACE FOR PROGRAMMING PROGRAMMABLE CONTROLLERS

THE USER INTERFACE CONTAINS A PROJECT WINDOW (9, 90; FIGS. 2, 3) FOR THE INTERFACES (CLIPS) OF THE PROGRAMMABLE CONTROLLER AND PROGRAMMING WINDOWS (20, FIGS. 4, 10, 13; 67, 16) FOR ONE OUTPUT INTERFACE EACH OF THE PROGRAMMABLE CONTROLLER. IN THIS CASE, A PROGRAMMING WINDOW CONTAINS A BASE NODE AS A FIRST GRAPHIC OPERATOR CONTROL ELEMENT (21; 10) FOR THE OUTPUT INTERFACE OF THE RESPECTIVE PROGRAMMING WINDOW AND AT LEAST ONE FURTHER NODE, WHICH SERVES AS A GRAPHIC OPERATOR CONTROL ELEMENT (35; 10) FOR ANOTHER INTERFACE (CLIP) OR A GROUP OF LINKED INTERFACES OF THE PROGRAMMABLE CONTROLLER. EACH NODE HAS AN OUTPUT BRANCH LINE (44; 10), THE END OF WHICH CAN BE ROUTED BY A GRAPHIC OPERATOR CONTROL MEANS TO THE BASE NODE OR ANOTHER NODE. AFTER THE END OF THE OUTPUT BRANCH LINE IS DEPOSITED ON THE RESPECTIVE OTHER NODE, THERE IS ESTABLISHED BOTH A GRAPHIC LINKAGE BETWEEN THE NODES AND A CONTROL-SYSTEM LINKAGE BETWEEN THE INTERFACES REPRESENTING THE NODES (FIGS. 11, 12, 13). THE INVENTION HAS THE ADVANTAGE THAT IT IS CONSEQUENTLY ALSO POSSIBLE FOR USERS WHO HAVE NO EXPERIENCE IN THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF CONTROLLERS TO CREATE A CONTROL PROGRAM IN A SIMPLE AND ERROR-FREE WAY.(FIG.13)