re:Numbered vs Named parameters

Ray,

>I've thought for years that manufacturers should use man-readable
>names for parameters.<snip>It will most likely be an R???? parameter
>and will be only one bit of a longer parameter word.

Ray,

They are man-readable! owners MAN-ual readable :-)

>If we were to use some of these variables to hold longer term
>parameters (like the kind of door switch format) you could easily
>write a small bi-directional program that would take a man readable
>parameter name list file and set each of them in the emc.var file
>that we were going to use.
>
>But it would seem more practical to me to expand the emc.ini file to
>include settings for the type of door open protocol (or any other
>parametric machine or user or programmable variable) to be used with
>the run. If this were done for a full, modern machine tool the ini
>file would be expanded by many pages. --

How a bout an aux program that does both? possibly set up like an MS
Windows help contents/topics/search/index ? Specify if the selected
changes apply to the default, or a new 'named' setup(.ini)

Conversational EMC setup! Bet a LOT of people would benefit from
this!

Hope this intrigues.

Ballendo

P.S. Fer those who din't know: Parameters in a cnc control are ALL
the things which CAN be changed. The PART of the parameters list
which is most often changed(or assumed to be by the control mfr) are
usually referred to as SETTINGS. This has confused more than one
beginner... EMC has over 5000 parameters possible, although in
practice, FAR fewer are USED.