The rsview forum officially says that rsview object model is tested to work with VB, they cannot comment whether it work with VC++ etc. If that is so then what is the point of the obect model that is language dependent? And who is responsible for certifying whether a program/app is actually having an object model, Microsoft or the manufacturer itself like in this case AB?

 

Translation from Allen Bradley-ese into what they really mean:

"We don't want to support C++ because that's too much work and costs too much to hire support people who can figure out C++ code."

From a technical standpoint, if it works from VB, it WILL work from Visual C++. They just won't give you any help with it.

Alex Pavloff
Software Engineer
Eason Technology

 

thanks, I will try it out especially the example given by Brian Barber at the rsview forum. But the advantages of c based progs are tremendous, so I think this attitude of AB is lousy.

 

They won't support Fortran, either, though the interface is theoretically possible. Seriously, though, you've got to draw a line somewhere. Try this: fire up VC++ on a machine that also has RSView installed. Select 'tools/OLE COM object viewer'. Expand the type library folder, and
double click on the rsview32 object model. There it is - the interface definition. Assuming I am reasonably familiar with C++ and COM, but unfamiliar with the RSView object model, do you think you could walk me through coding an app to set a tag value, over the phone ? In less than an hour ?

Easy to tell you how to do this in VB. I could walk someone with beginning BASIC skills, and no knowlege of COM, in less than an hour. That's why they call it 'Rapid Application Development'.

BTW - if you really want to access RSView from C++, I suspect AB would be happy to help. The basic (no pun intended) support contract isn't going to cut it, though. Check out http://support.automation.rockwell.com/tas/

Dan Hazel
(Rockwell Automation, but speaking for myself...)