Programming support apparatus, programming support method, program for causing computer to implement the method, and recording medium containing the program

A method of supporting a creation of a control program using labels with which each of a plurality of control devices provided in a control system controls a target object to be controlled, the method comprising:

• extracting shared labels from control programs of the control devices, the shared label being included in at least a first control program and a second control program among the control programs, wherein the shared labels are to be associated with a device corresponding to memories, each of which memories is included in one of the control devices and is shared by the control devices;
• shared-label write/read information generating including
• identifying, for each of the control devices, whether each of data for which one of the shared labels is used is to be written or to be read by corresponding one of the control devices by referring to a control program executed by the corresponding one of the control devices, and
• generating shared-label write/read information;
• determining a configuration of the control system based on system configuration information indicating a configuration of the control system;
• and
• device batch assigning and associating including sorting the shared labels into sets using the shared-label write/read information such that the shared labels included in the same one of the sets are to be written by the same one of the control devices, and
• associating each of the shared labels with an address of each of the devices such that data, for which the shared labels included in the same one of the sets are used, are stored in an continuous area of the device, and
• the associating is performed based on a result of determination at the determining,
• wherein each of the shared labels is replaced with an address when the control program is compiled.

A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium that stores therein a computer program for supporting a creation of a control program using a label with which each of a plurality of control devices provided in a control system controls a target object to be controlled, the computer program causing a computer to execute:

• extracting shared labels from control programs of the control devices, the shared label being included in at least a first control program and a second control program among the control programs, wherein the shared labels are to be associated with a device corresponding to memories, each of which memories is included in one of the control devices and is shared by the control devices;
• shared-label write/read information generating including
• identifying, for each of the control devices, whether each of data for which one of the shared labels is used is to be written or to be read by corresponding one of the control devices by referring to a control program executed by the corresponding one of the control devices, and
• generating shared-label write/read information;
• determining a configuration of the control system based on system configuration information indicating a configuration of the control system;
• and
• device batch assigning and associating including sorting the shared labels into sets using the shared-label write/read information such that the shared labels included in the same one of the sets are to be written by the same one of the control devices, and
• associating each of the shared labels with an address of each of the devices such that data, for which the shared labels included in the same one of the sets are used, are stored in an continuous area of the device, and
• the associating is performed based on a result of determination at the determining,
• wherein each of the shared labels is replaced with an address when the control program is compiled.