Hi All, I agree with the conclusion that LinuxCNC rocks. Most, if not all, functionality you want is there and you just need to tap into that. However, the main obstacle I see is the very steep learning curve for tuning the software to fit the particular setup.
This is the ever recurring problem of complex systems. You can provide flexibility to do anything, which makes it hard, or you provide simplicity and only cover a partial feature set. Big companies have enough resources to do their own development and have the knowledge internal. They can provide a turnkey solution where the customer only sees a small part of the overall complexity and have abstracted most things behind propriety. Complex open systems generally live on the documentation they provide to make the "customer" happy. And that documentation is very hard to write. It needs to provide structured and organized information on many different levels, one level for each type of user. The ability for a user to find a solution for their specific problem (fast) is a good measure of usability. And that does not include having to read several books of background information and distilling the fraction needed. In my opinion, here lies the problem and biggest hurdle at the moment. To be honest, I am not a good writer, but I do recognize good written information. Most specialists share a common problem, me included. A specialist is not always a good teacher. And to write good documentation, you need to have some of those pedagogy skills. Luckily, it is not all bad. It is often a matter of group focus and lots and lots of time. If LinuxCNC can flatten the learning curve just a bit, it will rock even more. -- Greetings Bertho (disclaimers are disclaimed) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
