#Serial library c++ joystick software#
Together, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism help promote code reuse, which is essential to meeting our requirement that the software package be flexible. However, when we call this method on an object called Bus, we find that the Bus has 10 wheels. When we invoke this method on our Automobile, we learn that the Automobile has four wheels. For example, let us say our Vehicle object contains a method called CountWheels. Polymorphism is an extremely powerful mechanism that allows various inherited objects to exhibit different behaviors when the same named method is invoked upon them.
#Serial library c++ joystick plus#
The Automobile object has access to all non-private methods and properties of Vehicle plus any additional methods or properties that makes it uniquely an automobile. For example, one can create an object called Automobile that inherits from Vehicle. Inheritance allows one object to be a superset of another object. This access control helps abstract away the inner workings of a class while making it obvious to a caller which methods and properties are intended to be used externally. The programmer can control access to the object's data by marking methods or properties as public, protected, or private. Further, encapsulation allows an object to hide private data from any entity outside the object. For example, an “engine” object might contain methods for starting, stopping, or accelerating, along with properties for “RPM” and “Oil pressure”. 3Įncapsulation is the ability of an object to maintain its own methods (or functions) and properties (or variables). But what does it mean? And why is it relevant for automation software? Essentially, a language that is object-oriented provides three important programming mechanisms: encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism.
2 The term “object-oriented programming language” is a familiar phrase that has been in use for decades. Now that one embodiment of an ideal automation control platform has been described let us see how the use of C++ helps achieving this ideal possible.ĭeveloped in 1983 by Bjarne Stroustrup of Bell Labs, C++ helped propel the concept of object-oriented programming into the mainstream. For example, if one of the two readers were to experience some sort of error, the controlling software should be smart enough to route all samples to the working reader without taking the entire system offline. While resource pooling provides a clear throughput advantage, it can also be used to make the system more robust. It would make that if the system operator connected another identical reader into the system, the controller software should be able to use both readers, cutting the total throughput time of the reading step in half. For example, let us assume that a plate-reading step is the slowest task in a given method. The ideal automation software, therefore, would make use of redundant devices in the system to increase throughput. It does not make sense to purchase high-speed automation if the controlling software does not maximize throughput of the system. Two strong reasons to automate a laboratory are increased throughput and improved robustness. The ideal automation software platform must therefore have an open architecture to provide such connectivity. Similarly, if the software cannot connect to the customer's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) database, 1 it is of limited usefulness. Having a platform that can control systems of any size is far less valuable if the end user cannot control every device type they need to use.
If automation software is written to be scalable, it must also be flexible. If such a software package existed, managers would only have to train users on one platform and would be able to source software support from a single vendor. In the ideal world, managers could use the same software package to control systems of any size from single instruments such as pipettors or readers to large robotic systems with up to hundreds of instruments. As a result, managers are forced to spend money training their users on numerous different software packages while purchasing support contracts for each. Rarely does a laboratory purchase all of its automation from a single equipment vendor. As research laboratories become more automated, new problems are arising for laboratory managers.