A custom language (PPCL) plugin and syntax for Sublime Text 3

10:00 AM - 10:25 AM on July 17, 2016, Room CR7

Brien Blandford

Audience level:

intermediate

Description

PPCL (Powers Process Control Language) is a custom language for building systems controllers by Siemens. It is similar to Basic (and essentially the same vintage), and is very difficult to use in the Siemens-provided text editor. It is incredibly cumbersome to bulk edit (if at all possible), and doesn't have customizeable syntax highlighting, or the freedom to modify any of the editing parameters.

When writing a lot of Siemens PPCL, it is very time consuming and frustrating. In having to write and edit large amounts of this code, I made a plugin for Sublime Text 3 and a syntax that allow me to edit code much more quickly.

Abstract

For a custom language (PPCL by Siemens for building controllers), a new Sublime Text 3 plugin and syntax were created. This presentation will describe the motive, the PPCL syntax and difficulties, the syntax highlighting, the plugin, and issues encountered along the way. The plugin consists of line number toggling, line insertion with line numbers, and commenting shortcuts.