MultiTrack is our new multitasking system. MultiTrack makes it easy to write programs that do many things at once. With MultiTrack we are confident in claiming SPLat is the easiest controller in the world to program for the majority of machine control applications - easier than C, easier than Ladder, easier than Basic.
To write MultiTrack you need to learn exactly two new instructions. That means with MultiTrack and FastTrack just 16 instructions could be all you ever need to learn to write timing and sequencing programs that do several things at once. Naturally, there's a tutorial to make it really easy to learn.
MultiTrack will be made available on all current controllers, i.e. MMi201, SL99 and MS12.
As a bonus, MultiTrack provides a perfect framework for libraries of common functions. In future you can expect to see us release sample programs for a range of common functions. The first is a sophisticated user interface for the new Real Time Clock.
Ladder logic is inherently multitasking. That's the good news. The bad news is that unless you have been trained to think in ladder logic it is a paradigm that very effectively masks the logic of any program. Ladder is particularly challenged to handle sequential functions and processes, which are the life blood of most machine controls.
C is a very powerful language. For computing (creating word processors, operating systems and other PC applications) C is the language of choice for very many professional programmers. However, controller applications are not computing. Different things are important in controllers. Even if you can learn C (not exactly easy!), you must also buy, learn and understand an operating system.
Basic is seductive. There are even controller product that use "Basic" in their name. However, Basic was invented to teach college students simple computing. It was not designed for control applications. Incidentally, we use Visual Basic for SPLat/PC and our support programs like SPLogger and PIDAssist, so we know it well. Some versions of Basic found in controller product have built in multitasking. None of those products comes in a properly industrialized form like SPLat, with protected inputs and decent outputs.
The SPLat language was designed from Day One for machine control applications. It has evolved over the last 10 years in directions that have been guided by real user feedback. We include the language features that will make controller programming easy, like an instruction to wait for an off to on transition on an input (at best several lines of code in C or Basic and several rungs in ladder). SPLat handles event triggered and timed sequences with consummate easy. MultiTrack makes multitasking very, very easy to achieve as a simple, built in feature of the language.
Even if you have never written a program in your life, with our easy programming methods and our mini-tutorials, providing you have basic computer operating skills and have a need for a control system, you can start to see how it can all work within one hour or two hours of installing and running our free programming software, SPLat/PC. You can download the latest SPLat/PC here.