There were move afoot to standardize the process control networks, when I left the industry, I wonder if it succeeded? [Simon Fell] Nope. You have a choice today of DeviceNet, Foundation Fieldbus, and PROFIBUS, CAN and ethernet for process control, and these are just the major buses/protocols. There are still many devices that don't implement any of those protocols, and there are devices too small in processor power to implement any of higher level protocols like DeviceNet. Ethernet has made some inroads but even BMW is sticking to Fieldbus over ethernet for the majority of its control needs.
Speaking of language wars, can anyone explain the differences between the ECMA, ISO and ANSI standards bodies? JavaScript and now C# are ECMA standards while C++ is a dual ISO and ANSI standard. What are the pros and cons of each standard body?
I didn't intend to start a language war between Sam, Simon and James. They have, however, been far too civil about the whole affair :-).
Within 2 hours of posting my complaint about buying an out of print First Edition of C# Essentials at Barnes&Noble I got e-mail from Peter Drayton and a Product Marketing Manager at O'Reilly offering to send me a copy of C# Essentials, Second Edition for free. You guys rule!
That saves me $20. Hey Dave, Radio is halfway to paying for itself!