Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC? (still the same)

[Frederic RIBLE]

Integrating QtQuickVcp with LinuxCNC should be very interesting.
I have developed a DRO component for QtQuickVcp with the look and feel 
of Gmoccapy.

See  my CNC mill project: https://youtu.be/LnJv07yeGt0?t=3m28s
I am using also Gmoccapy for other machines, and would love having one 
ported to QtQuickVcp.
Many benefits such as running the GUI on a separate tablet as a cheap 
touchscreen solution.

Frederic.
http://cnc.f1oat.org

On 2017-11-27 16:37, Alexander Rössler wrote:

Nicklas Karlsson writes:


Yes. I do not like python and guess C++ execute faster so why not.



  From a developers perspective VCPs where completely outdated and not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.

I worked with glade and it works rather well although some of widgets
are a little bit limited.

Yeah, widgets technology is great for small desktop UIs. However, I also
seen big UIs where glade in general is bit of a pain.

The more modern Gtk3 UIs also HTML/JS I have heard.


QtQuickVcp comes with 2 reference UIs:
- Cetus: designed as axis replacement:
https://github.com/qtquickvcp/Cetus

Look the same as now so I guess it should work great.


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)

The way I am heading.


To support LinuxCNC would be quite simple. The machine/server part is
based on Machinetalk - an open source middleware.

Linuxcnc use NML and I think the server part is in working order but have not had enough 
time to figure out how it is with the "axis" user interface, got more hardware 
today.


Basically, it would be a matter of "adapting" mkwrapper, mklauncher and
configserver (Python applications) over to LinuxCNC.

?

These are the names of the "server" applications in Machinekit.

To make it simple: It would be possible to add the Machinetalk support
as a separate package. No need to modify the LinuxCNC source code.


HAL Remote - which is useful for custom extensions would require more
effort, since it depends on the haltalk server - which goes deep into
Machinekit.

haltalk, this is between which parrts.

Very well described here:
https://machinekoder.com/machinetalk-explained-part-4-hal-remote/


  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.

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Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC? (still the same)

[Alexander Rössler]

Nicklas Karlsson writes:

> Yes. I do not like python and guess C++ execute faster so why not.
>
>
>>  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.
>
> I worked with glade and it works rather well although some of widgets
> are a little bit limited.
Yeah, widgets technology is great for small desktop UIs. However, I also
seen big UIs where glade in general is bit of a pain.

The more modern Gtk3 UIs also HTML/JS I have heard.

>
>> QtQuickVcp comes with 2 reference UIs:
>> - Cetus: designed as axis replacement:
>> https://github.com/qtquickvcp/Cetus
>
> Look the same as now so I guess it should work great.
>
>> 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)
>
> The way I am heading.
>
>> To support LinuxCNC would be quite simple. The machine/server part is
>> based on Machinetalk - an open source middleware.
>
> Linuxcnc use NML and I think the server part is in working order but have not 
> had enough time to figure out how it is with the "axis" user interface, got 
> more hardware today.
>
>> Basically, it would be a matter of "adapting" mkwrapper, mklauncher and
>> configserver (Python applications) over to LinuxCNC.
>
> ?
These are the names of the "server" applications in Machinekit.

To make it simple: It would be possible to add the Machinetalk support
as a separate package. No need to modify the LinuxCNC source code.

>
>> HAL Remote - which is useful for custom extensions would require more
>> effort, since it depends on the haltalk server - which goes deep into
>> Machinekit.
>
> haltalk, this is between which parrts.
Very well described here:
https://machinekoder.com/machinetalk-explained-part-4-hal-remote/

>
>>  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.
>
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Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Alexander Rössler]

Remote UI is part of QtQuickVcp, so yes it would be supported.

I can also post on the developers list.

Rene Hopf writes:

> Hi,
>
> Im very interested in using this. would you only port the qtvcp, or also the 
> remote UI stuff? or does that go together?
> Norbert, the gmoccapy guy, is very interested in qt5. but he is only on the 
> developers list.
>
> Rene
>  
>> On 21. Nov 2017, at 11:31, Alex Rössler  wrote:
>> 
>> 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 Rössler aka. Machine Koder
>> https://machinekoder.com
>> a...@machinekoder.com
>> 
>> --
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>> engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
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>
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Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Alexander Rössler]

I think Qt is a good choice for modern UIs.

* It has a history of more than 21 years.
* It's used on safety critical environments (medical, automotive, ...)
* It supports all relevant platforms.
* It's open source.
* Commercial support is available if necessary.
* QtQuickVcp is already working fine, no need to reinvent here.

John Dammeyer writes:

> 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:

Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Alexander Rössler]

Sebastian Kuzminsky writes:

> On 11/21/2017 03:31 AM, Alex Rössler wrote:
>> Hello everyone,
>
> Hi Alex,
>
>
>> 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.
>
> More UIs and UI frameworks are always welcome.
>
>
>>  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.
>
> I am not at all interested in closed source UIs, or closed source
> software in general.
>
> The whole point of the LinuxCNC project as far as I'm concerned is to
> produce open source machine control software; anything that's not
> directly aligned with that goal is at best distraction to me.
>
> I understand that not everyone agrees with my opinion on this topic, and
> I hope we can make progress on the technical aspects without getting
> bogged down in a political/philosophical conversation.
Yes, I agree here. Open source software is important but I also think it
is important to support close-source use-cases. Closing down the UI is
common way for OEMs to "protect" their products and corporate design
from piracy/fakes on the market.

>
>
>> 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.
>
> Awesome!
>
>
>> 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).
>
> How does the UI reach from the machine it's running on to the machine
> running the motion controller?  I understand that it's using some
> innovation from Machinekit, but does it still end up talking to Task
> using NML in the end?  I haven't been following Machinekit at all so I
> dont know what architectural changes y'all have made.  If it ends up
> being NML to Task we can probably support it in LinuxCNC.
Machinetalk is the name of the middleware:
https://machinekoder.com/machinetalk-explained-part-1-introduction/

Its Machinekit independent and does support multiple languages and
platforms.

>
>
>> 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.
>
> So MachinekitClient is some kind of generic UI-running application, sort
> of like a web browser, and the UIs are runtime-loadable front ends sort
> of like web pages?
That's exactly the idea.

>
>
>> 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.
>
> This to me seems like the bulk of the work.
>
> Remote UIs need a way to talk to the motion controller, and I understand
> the interfaces available for this in Machinekit are far different from
> what we have in LinuxCNC.  We have working NML-over-TCP, but no MDNS-SD
> auto-discovery and no remote HAL interface (halrmt doesn't count).
So, the story is the following. NML is not replaced yet in
Machinekit. For the CNC relevant interface we use wrappers around the
linuxcnc Python module. So we should be pretty compatible with LinuxCNC
when it comes to supporting the CNC UIs.

Machinetalk can be packaged independently. Easiest way to install it is
via Python pip. pip install machinetalk-protobuf

>
>
>>  From the user perspective, I think the split between LinuxCNC and
>> Machinekit makes absolutely not sense and is very confusing.
>
> I agree with this statement, but it's another tangential topic that I
> will stay out of, because it threatens to distract from the productive
> technical conversation.
>
>
>> 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
>
> What Linux distros can you 

Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Sebastian Kuzminsky]

On 11/21/2017 03:31 AM, Alex Rössler wrote:

Hello everyone,


Hi Alex,



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.


More UIs and UI frameworks are always welcome.



 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.


I am not at all interested in closed source UIs, or closed source 
software in general.


The whole point of the LinuxCNC project as far as I'm concerned is to 
produce open source machine control software; anything that's not 
directly aligned with that goal is at best distraction to me.


I understand that not everyone agrees with my opinion on this topic, and 
I hope we can make progress on the technical aspects without getting 
bogged down in a political/philosophical conversation.




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.


Awesome!



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).


How does the UI reach from the machine it's running on to the machine 
running the motion controller?  I understand that it's using some 
innovation from Machinekit, but does it still end up talking to Task 
using NML in the end?  I haven't been following Machinekit at all so I 
dont know what architectural changes y'all have made.  If it ends up 
being NML to Task we can probably support it in LinuxCNC.




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.


So MachinekitClient is some kind of generic UI-running application, sort 
of like a web browser, and the UIs are runtime-loadable front ends sort 
of like web pages?




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.


This to me seems like the bulk of the work.

Remote UIs need a way to talk to the motion controller, and I understand 
the interfaces available for this in Machinekit are far different from 
what we have in LinuxCNC.  We have working NML-over-TCP, but no MDNS-SD 
auto-discovery and no remote HAL interface (halrmt doesn't count).




 From the user perspective, I think the split between LinuxCNC and
Machinekit makes absolutely not sense and is very confusing.


I agree with this statement, but it's another tangential topic that I 
will stay out of, because it threatens to distract from the productive 
technical conversation.




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


What Linux distros can you run an existing QT Quick UI on, by installing 
only software that's packaged for that distro (preferably from the 
normal distro maintainers rather than from the upstream QT folks)?  I 
see that libqt5quick5 is available in Wheezy's backports and in the 
normal repos for Jessie and newer.  Is that what's needed to run QT 
Quick UIs?  What else is needed?


https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libqt5quick5=names=all=all

What Linux distros can you *develop* a QT Quick UI on, again by 
installing only software that's packaged for that distro by the distro 
maintainers?




If there is enough interest, I will start porting the required tools.


I'm cautiously interested and I welcome your work, if we can make it 
fit.  I think the UIs you've demoed look great, and I'd love to have 
modern QT-based UI framwork(s) for LinuxCNC.



--
Sebastian Kuzminsky

--
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most
engaging tech sites, 

Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Rene Hopf]

Hi,

Im very interested in using this. would you only port the qtvcp, or also the 
remote UI stuff? or does that go together?
Norbert, the gmoccapy guy, is very interested in qt5. but he is only on the 
developers list.

Rene
 
> On 21. Nov 2017, at 11:31, Alex Rössler  wrote:
> 
> 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 Rössler 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


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Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[John Dammeyer]

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
> _

Re: [Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC? (still the same)

[Nicklas Karlsson]

Yes. I do not like python and guess C++ execute faster so why not.


>  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.

I worked with glade and it works rather well although some of widgets are a 
little bit limited.

> QtQuickVcp comes with 2 reference UIs:
> - Cetus: designed as axis replacement: 
> https://github.com/qtquickvcp/Cetus

Look the same as now so I guess it should work great.

> 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)

The way I am heading.

> To support LinuxCNC would be quite simple. The machine/server part is
> based on Machinetalk - an open source middleware.

Linuxcnc use NML and I think the server part is in working order but have not 
had enough time to figure out how it is with the "axis" user interface, got 
more hardware today.

> 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.

haltalk, this is between which parrts.

>  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.

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[Emc-users] Anyone interested in QtQuickVcp support for LinuxCNC?

[Alex Rössler]

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 Rössler aka. Machine Koder
https://machinekoder.com
a...@machinekoder.com

--
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engaging tech sites, Slashdot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
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