As HART Communication Foundation director Ron Helson pointed out, “For more than a decade, DDL has proven its value to both users and manufacturers as a standard environment for accessing unique features of HART-enabled devices.” It may be that the acceptance of DDL was urged on the IEC by the backers of Field Device Tool (FDT). The backers are primarily large European automation companies who invested heavily in FDT, but then received strong objections from many companies in the
It lasted for considerably more than a week, from April 6 to April 19, and the latest rendition of National Brotherhood Week for the control industry saw old rivals, new rivals and friendly competitors joining hands in many ways.In the old Tom Lehrer song, “National Brotherhood Week,” people who hated each other set aside their differences for only a single week. Lehrer sang:“It's only for a week, so have no fear Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!”In this latest incarnation, we hope that the agreements and efforts last longer than a year. On April 6, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) approved the HART Device Description Language (DDL) as an international standard. DDL has been around since 1990, so some might say it’s about time the IEC approved it.