Thank you for the summary! I’ve worked with Beckhoff in the past, but I’m not as familiar with TwinCat 3 anymore. From my experience, saving all files in plain text is a very important step. I’ve been working with B&R for years, where this has been standard practice for quite some time, and now I couldn’t imagine working any other way! :)
Cool news! 🎉
Am I wrong or are they baking a new runtime as well? I’d expect to see tc3 and plc++ running side to side on the same plc for the transition phase at least. And if this is the case I wonder how they’re going to deal with that..
Sounds like a rewrite of the 'PLC' module. Especially as it doesn't support any new languages. Similar to the ‘C++‘ module that was available for years.
Maybe they had some technical debt in the backend and wanted to integrate some new features that wasn't possible without breaking changes.
Definitely newsworthy and good that they are optimizing.
I wonder what new features require a new module and what is depreciated.
If I know Beckhoff, next update 2030 lol
Not knowing what it's gonna be, I know how it's gonna be. First we will see a pre-alpha during a fair, after two years we will see an almost-beta. Next two years and first public release with pile of limitations. So, don't hold your breath.
Imho, C++ being 40 years old, there are more modern low-level languages that could serve as a better inspiration.
I don't think C++ has been an inspiration for anything of this, and is not related to what Beckhoff are working on here. It's not in any way a change of language (other than including the new functionalities of the 4th edition of IEC61131-3 into the compiler). It will still be IEC 61131-3. It's the tooling around that is being changed.
Rewelacja❤
As I see this, the PLC++ will be like the PLC/C++/IO/Scope/Motion/HMI module/project. In your solution, you can create a PLC project. In the future, you will also be able to create a PLC++ project. This is how I see it.
I agree. The artwork and naming fits this interpretation.
The text sells what the backend programmers probably been cooking up for a while now in as nice words as possible.
It would be cool if Beckhoff would make a VSC extension and you could run the whole thing in a Docker.
I am sure that a HUGE part of this was you Jakob. I hope you get recognition from them, every developer should be aware of your work. Can't wait to see what happens, though a long wait ahead of us I assume :)