XML exchange of control programs

The XML interface defined by PLCopen allows software reuse through interoperability between development tools, as it provides the ability to transfer the information that is on the screen to other platforms. This article presented a way to give any development environment that does not yet support the PLCopen interface the ability to import/export XML files following such a format and, thus, making code really exchangeable. However, the profit to be made may be much more than code reuse, as the interface can be used to interoperate with other software tools, such as configuration, documentation, version control, modeling, and simulation tools.