About this talk
This talk explores the evolution of Eclipse 4diac, an open source toolset for developing IEC 61499-compliant industrial automation systems, originally launched as a student project and matured into an industrial-grade platform over 18 years. The speaker, Michael Oberlehner from Johannes Kepler University, details the platform's integration of graphical modeling, textual programming, and code generation within a unified development environment. Key improvements addressed usability, including the consolidation of editors and the incorporation of Xtext for structured text development, while tackling challenges related to hybrid graphical and textual editor synchronization and performance optimization for large-scale applications. The session emphasizes the importance of leveraging existing Eclipse platform components to maintain alignment with updates and reduce technical debt, highlighting the project's commitment to continuous adaptation in real-world industrial environments.
