A survey of high-level programming languages in control systems

This paper explains how advanced programming language concepts can be used to increase the readability and maintainability of control process software. The programming language concepts presented in this paper are: function pointers, variable argument functions and three concepts related to object-oriented programming: polymorphism, relationship of composition between classes and class methods. The advantage of every one of these concepts is demonstrated by using control applications. The paper also demonstrates that intelligent control algorithms can be improved by using these concepts. C and C++ programming languages are used to implement the code of the control systems.