| Summary: | The proliferation of programming environments such as Logo, Minecraft, Code or Scratch is a consequence of the effectiveness of a graphic language for the introduction of students in programming but, some of the newer systems, such as App Inventor, are slow in the basic interaction: “make it” / “test it”. I propose an alternative for students from the age of 15. It is called VirPLC and it is oriented to something as functional as the systems control, through two screens: one with software to program and, another one with animated hardware to simulate it. VirPLC does not pretend to turn the user into an expert in automation, but to facilitate a first contact between the student and the logic world, by posing problems in practical, near and real control systems such as: crane control; TV competition; alarm; supermarket door; garage door; traffic light; lift... The student raises both the logical operativity, as well as the hardware requirements (inputs and outputs). The software works in an evolutionary and repeated way: “make it” / “test it” and consolidate to improve it. It allows the evolution in levels of greater complexity, where it is debugged until acquiring a solid “product”, functional, safe, versatile and installable. VirPLC step by step “hooks” students who pursue challenges and offers an alternative to apply after some Boolean Algebra notions, and before written programming, with objects, events and classes. VirPLC is freeware, it works under Windows (from XP to W10) and can be downloaded from the author’s WEB. At install time, it adds a folder with more than 30 examples often deliberately incomplete, along with a mini-course with several proposed practices.
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