Graphical interconnection of hardware signals

A method for graphical interconnection of a hardware signal of a device having a plurality of terminals, comprising:

• providing a processor unit for connection to the device;
• providing a display unit with a graphical user interface having a first and second areas;
• displaying a schematic presentation of the device in the first area, each device terminal displayed in accordance with a position of the respective terminal on the device, each displayed device terminal including a logical address corresponding to an address convention used by the device to assign a hardware signal to the logical address;
• displaying a program element of a programming environment in the second area;
• selecting from the schematic presentation displayed on the first area a terminal representation with a respective logical address, the selected terminal representation corresponding to a hardware signal to be interconnected;
• dragging the representation of the selected terminal from the first area to the second area;
• dropping the representation of the selected terminal on the program element;
• displaying a logical address of the dropped terminal representation in the second area with the program element;
• displaying a user-editable symbolic representation of the logical address together with the logical address;
• and
• editing the user-editable symbolic representation of the logical address by clicking on the terminal representation corresponding to the hardware signal to be interconnected,
• wherein the dropping of the representation of the selected terminal on the program element causes the hardware signal to be logically linked via the logical address with the program element without a user having to know the address convention used by the device.

A computer program providing a graphical interconnection of a hardware signal of a controller device having a plurality of terminals, the program stored on a processor unit readable medium and having instructions that are executable on the processor unit, the processor unit coupled to the controller device, a keyboard, a mouse, and a display unit, the program when executed by the processor unit performs a method comprising:

• providing a first area and a second area on the display unit;
• displaying a schematic presentation of the device in the first area, each device terminal displayed in accordance with a position of the respective terminal on the device, each displayed device terminal including a logical address in accordance with an address convention of the device to assign a hardware signal to the logical address;
• displaying a program element of a programming environment in the second area;
• providing a symbolic address interface to a user of the program, the symbolic address interface allowing the user to perform edits on a symbolic representation of a logical address corresponding to a representation of one of the plurality of terminals displayed on the schematic presentation on the first area, the representation of said one of the plurality of terminals corresponding to a hardware signal to be interconnected, the symbolic address interface further allowing to display on the display unit the symbolic representation of the logical address together with the logical address, wherein the symbolic representation of the logical address is edited in response to a click on the representation of said one of the plurality of terminals corresponding to the hardware signal to be interconnected;
• and
• providing a selection interface to the user, the selection interface allowing the user to:
• select the representation of said one of the plurality of terminals,
• drag the selected representation of said one of the plurality of terminals from the first area to the second area;
• and
• drop the representation of said one of the plurality of terminals on the program element,
• whereby the hardware signal is logically linked via the logical address with the program element without a user having to know the address convention used by the device.