Indeed, it's still very much alive in European industrial automation scene. The ladder logic lends itself well for majority of industrial automation problems (

Indeed, it's still very much alive in European industrial automation scene. The ladder logic lends itself well for majority of industrial automation problems (e.g. turn on the motor until the part triggers a sensor, then activate a pneumatic cylinder to push it sideways). The control flow can be easily followed for debugging. Since it's also easily interfaced with structured text modules, one can write procedural code for problems that are more easily expressed in procedural code (in my experience: statemachines, network communication, loops), but still use ladder logic that's more understandable by other people who may be maintaining the machine down the roead.