On 12/26/21 1:30 PM, John Dammeyer wrote:
Hi Mark,
I'll summarize your basic premise here that all machines are different.
That's true!
And MACH2/3/4 has a huge user base without ever needing a command line editor.
So if it can be done for Windows then certainly it can be done for LCNC.
And I thought Mach used VB to get certain things done certain ways?
Having said that I'm also not suggesting we do away with the underbelly of what
is LCNC. Please recall my original post in this subject. The ACORN based
system cannot run an old iron system with existing servo drives. It's likely
it can't even run a system with a STMBL drive that faults on low power supply
voltage which mine does because I have a soft start delay on mine so ENABLE
shows up before the Voltage is there. Doesn't look like it can even do
step/dir for the spindle (which MACH3 can). So there is a place for the 'raw'
LinuxCNC install and HAL/INI file model.
But that user I mentioned wasn't interested in learning a new OS and the ACORN
was a one stop shop for the Ethernet controlled step/dir/VFD/IO board and
windows CNC software. He went with Clearpath Servos so he wasn't adverse to
spending money. He could just as easily have installed LCNC 2.8.2 and the MESA
board with terminal strips and used the config screens in AXIS and I suspect
for less money. But the LinuxOS itself appeared to also scare him away so he
likely would never be a user.
Did he look at Pathpilot?
I think everyone who likes using an editor for configuration and issuing
multiple commands with a command line interface has already been brought over
to the dark side so to speak. They aren't the market for expanding the LCNC
user base.
I've attached a screen shot of something I've been playing with. Took about an
hour to write using a modern GUI based software development tool; in this case
Lazarus Free Pascal. The TCanvas Property has all sorts of drawing tools so I
thought I'd take a quick look at the Axis source code. To see how easy it
would be to port over the Preview screen to Pascal.
I was immediately reminded of something I written many years ago by Nicholas Wirth the
author of Pascal. "Those who learn Fortran as their first language are brain
damaged for life". Rather harsh actually and taken out of context appears elitist .
OTOH, 4195 lines of essentially undocumented python code does look like a lot of the
Fortran code the Electrical Engineers were writing in University while we in the Comp
Sci. stream were writing in structured languages Algol-68. And those were not for GUI
type interfaces which add to complexity.
For example:
if o.canon:
x = (o.canon.min_extents[0] + o.canon.max_extents[0])/2
y = (o.canon.min_extents[1] + o.canon.max_extents[1])/2
z = (o.canon.min_extents[2] + o.canon.max_extents[2])/2
o.set_centerpoint(x, y, z)
If you go searching for o.cannon you find:
o.canon = canon = AxisCanon(o, widgets.text, i, progress, arcdivision)
Search for AxisCAnon and we find the object definition:
class AxisCanon(GLCanon, StatMixin):
Now we're into the include side of things where the rs274 library is needed:
from rs274.interpret import StatMixin
from rs274.glcanon import GLCanon, GlCanonDraw
which takes us to here:
https://github.com/LinuxCNC/linuxcnc/blob/master/lib/python/rs274/glcanon.py
which is another 1886 lines of undocumented code.
The excuses that will be made for no documentation will be the same ones given
for command line operation of Linux and LCNC. It's much better than windows
or it's self documenting. You just have to learn a few commands and you can do
so much more than with windows........
You'll get no arguments from me on the documentation. I waded through
all that stuff thinking I was in way over my head. Thank god for the
IRC at the time and the knowledgeable and very helpful folks that seemed
like they lived there and helped me get my machine set up and running.
Self documentation is nonsense. It's just laziness when someone doesn't
want to take the time to document their work. Been there, had to create
documentation where none existed before in my last job as a sysadmin for
DoD. My predecessor was a firm believer in self documenting. Whether or
not Linux or Unix is better than Windows? After sysadmining both
systems for close to 30 years, it's hands down Linux and Unix are a much
better, more secure and more robust OS than Windows could ever be. Why
do you think Apple went to BSD Unix for it's back end?
Mark
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