AMBsoft UK

Here's a little about myself and how my interests in PC's and programming have led to the creation of AMBsoft UK. It is a brief outline on what has driven me to develop my software, and distribute it via this site.

I have been interested in computers since about 1982. My first computer was the Sinclair Spectrum ©...... Remember? The little black box with the rubber keys! I quickly began to write software (mostly games) for it, but limitations in the system meant I had to look elsewhere. This led to me upgrading to a Commodore 64 ©, then came the Commodore Amiga © 500 and later, the 4000.

In 1990 I bought my first PC. An Intel © 486 SX 25MHz with 4Mb of RAM....phew! I had little time to write software for the PC and any programming was concentrated solely in my job at this point....writing software for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) which are used to automate factory machinery. During the following years I continued to write software for various types of PLC; Omron, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, Klockner Möeller, Merlin Gerin (April), and latterly Modicon Telemecanique.

In 1997 I brought both fields together when I wrote a program in Microsoft QuickBASIC © to convert saved programs or Object Files taken from Merlin Gerin (April) PB80 and PB400 PLCs into Source Code which can easily be read and edited. The program was called PLC_Proc ©. I later added an extra feature; the ability to create Ladder type listings.

I then decided to learn Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 ©. For my first real program I decided it would be a good idea to convert my old PLC_Proc © program into Visual Basic © format. The result was PLC Program Processor ©.

Releasing the software, and the creation of this web site was a bit of an accident. I had created PLC Program Processor © to use in my job, and had started to create a personal web site when I thought I would bring the two together. Since then, this web site has changed, to concentrate on my software and other related subjects.

More recently, I decided to move to Visual Studio .NET ©. First, I updated all of my existing software titles to the new format, and introduced a new distribution packaging system. All of my future software will be .NET ©. Visual Basic .NET © is certainly a different beast to Visual Basic 6.0 ©. I can say, however, that overall I find it a much better developement system, and would recommend it over the previous versions.

When time allows, I continue to work both on this web site, and on my software. I am currently working on both PLC Program Processor ©, which has recently had major improvements in both function and appearance, and on other projects that I will release once they are at the beta stage or better.

Please check the Software page for details of my software, which is available available to download.

Andrew M. Bailey