Patent ID: 7143366

Claim:
A graphical compare utility system for displaying control programs for industrial control modules, the system comprising: a conversion system that receives a first and a second control program and converts the first and second control program into a first and second data set representing individual instruction of the first and second control program; a viewing system that accepts the first and second data sets and provides a graphical view of the first and second control programs in a single view based on the first and second binary data sets; a difference module that determines differences between the first and the second control programs and provides a difference data structure representing the differences between the first and second control program; and a comparison module that receives the difference data structure and the first and second control programs and generates a plurality of comparison scenarios to provide a plurality of comparison set views, the comparison module employing a decision model to determine the optimal display set view from the plurality of comparison set views by maximizing individual instruction matches between the first and second control programs.