Re: emc (TOME)

At 04:22 PM 10/12/99 -0700, you wrote:

>something new, and make something that is still evolving, work for them.
>Lots more pride and satisfaction in that, than popping in and disk and
>typing a:install

I can sure relate to that. I've been thinking for over a year now that I'd
have done less work by far to just buy something, and gotten something
smoother and prettier too. But there's nothing more satisfying than
compiling your creation and taking it straight to the machine for testing.
Not only do you learn more but you're not limited by anyone's concepts but
your own.

>Something I would love to see, would be a PC or Linux based program that
>duplicated the fill-in-the-blanks approach of Proto-Trak and such, and
>generate standard G-code.

Been there, done that. You're talking about the g-code ver of my stuff.
Doesn't run the machine but it emits all the code for that. Still needs
some development but it's not a real tough problem and I have it in Beta
already.

I'm learning a lot by watching the traffic, including of course another
lesson in human nature ... but doggone it I just have to ask another
question even if it's grist for the twit-mills ... what do you do when you
find a function you need that emc doesn't support? Crank out the moves one
by one?

I had this stumbling block myself with LPT method ... the commands don't
contain parameters enough to make possible what you get with Proto and
Analam and the rest; you get one and one only specific response of a type
for each command whereas they can make bundles of moves from a few
parametors. Since AS doesn't support chains of moves, that made it
necessary to use front end not only to communicate with driver but to serve
as code generator too. What seemed to be a disadvantage in the beginning
though has proved a very valuable asset in the end. The computer doesn't
make syntax or logical errors and I haven't composed a line of code by hand
since I began running this way.

Best wishes,

Hoyt McKagen


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