Re: How do I know if I want Linux

> From: Don Hughes <pencad@...>
> Now, another question. Seeing as I am not the real proficient
> type(yet..!!) at 'G' code programming for the type of operations I want
> to do, I have found a (here I go again) Windows 'G' coding program that
> will automatically do the code for me and nest the parts for me as well.
> Can a file from this program be saved to disk or sent to a machine over
> a network, if the code was done automatically by a Window's based
> program and then run under Linux by EMC? I do know that the file(s) will
> have to be read by EMC so then the native file format must be the same,
> but can it be done.

Sure, g-code (or RS-274D for the purists) programs are just text files.
Although DOS (and Windows) programs normally create text files with both a
carriage return and a line break character at the end of each line, Linux is
not unhappy with this. When going the other direction, text created using a
Linux editor will display in Notepad for example as one long string sans
carriage returns. Luckily there is a small set of utilities available that
will solve this small problem and they are called unix2dos and dos2unix.
Additionally, the DOS EDIT program displays unix style text just fine as does
Vernon Buerg's LIST program. Many other file formats (such as HTML) are
compatible as well, MSDOS formatted floppies can be mounted and read (and
written) by Linux without problems. You could also take the easy way out and
use a LAN ;) I even have an office suite for Linux that does a pretty good
job of reading and writing Microsoft Word documents!

Matt
mshaver@...