There are rumours that RAD Studio will soon have a Linux Platform added to their PC/Android/Apple Platforms. For those who don't know, the languages supported are Delphi (think Skype, Altium CAD etc), and C++. Although it's not a free development environment, the up side is with the click of a selection in a drop down menu the target can be recompiled for any of the platforms. That potentially makes it possible to develop a common user interface for both local and remote control. And visual interfaces are really easy to develop.
I've done some remote control applications that run on both a PC Windows Platform and my Android Tablet via Ethernet to DMX512A hardware. Simple sliders for RGB control. In the long run this may be a better way to develop an updated user interface for LinuxCNC. But I think it's still early days. John > -----Original Message----- > From: Alex Rössler [mailto:a...@machinekoder.com] > Sent: November-21-17 2:32 AM > To: Enhanced Machine Controller (EMC) > Subject: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC? > > Hello everyone, > > I have started a new VCP project approximately 4 years ago because I was > very dissatisfied with what was already available in LinuxCNC at the > time. > > From a users perspective, the UIs were not usable for 3d printers and > did > not even come close anything visually acceptable by the post-smartphone > era customers. > > From a developers perspective VCPs where completely outdated and not > even close to what modern UI toolkits offer. No developer really want's > to work with tk, we can argue about Gtk2. > > From an OEM perspective, there was no option to build a close-source UI > on top of LinuxCNC without a lot of effort. Additionally, if the OEM > decides to stay with Gtk2, it's not supported anymore and (almost) no > commercial help available. > > That's why I started a completely new approach for creating a VCP > development kit based on QtQuick - which is Qt's UI development > technology. > > QtQuickVcp comes with 2 reference UIs: > - Cetus: designed as axis replacement: > https://github.com/qtquickvcp/Cetus > - Machineface: a generic and full-blown 3D printer UI: > https://github.com/qtquickvcp/Machineface > > I agree both are not top notch when it comes to UI design. But with a > little effort you can create great stuff with QtQuickVcp > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT-tAweP21U > > All UIs run on Linux, Windows, OSX, Android and iOS (not in the app > store). > > To simplify remote deployment of the UIs one can simply download and run > the "MachinekitClient" (yes, it's Machinekit only right now) and connect > to the machine instance. > > This way, it's extremely simple to circumvent the limitations of > embedded computers with weak graphics performance. Use a cheap 100$ > tablet as your display and you are fine > (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnJv07yeGt0) > > To support LinuxCNC would be quite simple. The machine/server part is > based on Machinetalk - an open source middleware. > > Basically, it would be a matter of "adapting" mkwrapper, mklauncher and > configserver (Python applications) over to LinuxCNC. > > HAL Remote - which is useful for custom extensions would require more > effort, since it depends on the haltalk server - which goes deep into > Machinekit. > > From the user perspective, I think the split between LinuxCNC and > Machinekit makes absolutely not sense and is very confusing. To make it > simple: Machinekit is focused on Non-CNC and LinxuCNC on CNC. > > Anyway, that's worth another discussion, but for a start it would be > great if we could unity the UI land at least. > > UI is driving factor for modern CNC and QtQuickVcp makes it possible to > create modern UIs for LinuxCNC. > > Requiring the Qt toolchain, which can be cumbersome to install, is not > an issue anymore thanks to live coding support: > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5rYhq06wio > > Stay tuned: I also have tools for drag and drop UI and machine creation > in the > making - because I think that's what made Mach3 so successful (despite > the motion control is crap). > > Also upcoming thanks to Qt: Web Browser support: > http://blog.qt.io/blog/2017/07/07/qt-webgl-streaming-merged/ > > If there is enough interest, I will start porting the required tools. > > -- > Alex R�ssler aka. Machine Koder > https://machinekoder.com > a...@machinekoder.com > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most > engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot > _______________________________________________ > Emc-users mailing list > Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
