Conversational Programming and NAMES- very long!

I am back from NAMES, and with a 12 hour drive had a lot of time to
think about the events there and some of my views on CNC.

I have decided to become a missionary for Conversational programming,
and I intend to go after FlashCut as my first convert.

First, a new acronym- CPNC- Conversationaly Programmed Numeric Control.
(I hereby claim ownersip of that term :-)

At NAMES we had a seminar session with 10 of us each doing a short talk
on our project/product, then a pannel discussion and Q&A session. We had
a hard sell by an AcuRite rep pushing conversational programming. Then
we had Fred smith pushing CAD/CAM, and even making a foolish statement
that anyone making just one or two parts shouldnt be using CNC at all.
He did get soundly shouted down on that statement!

I am convinced that there is a need for CPNC. I think the entire
audience at NAMES fits exactly the profile of a CPNC user. A single
machinist, working in a very low budget shop with refurbed or home made
tools, making one-off 'things'. These guys do not need, and are quite
likely to never buy complex CAD/CAM tools. They do not have an
eningeering department to generate their programs for them. They often
make parts with NO drawings- either to make repair parts for some device
or to model some real thing they own- from simple tools to entire
tractors. They do not make 3D molds or turbine blades. Most of them are
computer novices.

Ok, so some segment of the world NEEDS CPNC. Another segment of the
world really needs G-code CNC and CAM software, and there are already a
bunch of companies supporting them. What I intend to work on is the CPNC
world.

I have made a start at a CPNC program. Feedback form most guys that
looked at it was positive, and since I based it alot on AcuRite I thik I
have a good model to work from. It still needs a lot of work but its a
start. I want to get a forum started that will discuss and develop a
better model for CPNC. I will put my code into a GPL form to start this
discussion.

QUESTION
Should we carry on this discussion here on this list or start a new
list devoted to CPNC? Remember, this is going to need to get into a lot
of detail if we are going to really develop a good package, and we are
going to have to exchange large files and screen shots.

Now, why did I say that FlashCut would be my first convert?

I like Visual Basic as a development tool, and I think it has more than
ample capability for the GUI parts of CPNC. Although there is work in
progress, no one has a VB like tool for Linux yet.

I hate Windows -(3.1, 95 98 or 2000) for its lousy real time ability.
This will not change in the foreseeable future.

I like Linux ( In real life I am Directotr of Operations for a company
and I have standardized ALL my systems and employees on Linux) I can
handle Linux, but I think a lot of people that need CPNC cannot. Maybe
someday they will be able to, but not yet.

The only way to make a decent CPNC system with a windows GUI is to use a
separate motion controller box to handle the real time stuff. We had
some discussions here a few weeks ago about developing such a box, but
that died.

FlashCut has a nice one, and its cheap enough to be widely used. BUT-
they refuse to release the specs to program it. I harped on this at
NAMES to anyone that would listen. I told alot of guys to avoid buying
FlashCut because they were offering a closed package that could not be
expanded. If you buy FlashCut now you better like the program, because
its the ony one you can run- did anyone ever buy a stereo that only came
with one song?

So, if we can get FlashCut to open their protocol we can develop a CPNC
package to use it. I dont expect them to NOT sell their software, I just
want the ability to buy their package and run MY software on it. I
cannot see how this could do anything but enlarge their market.

So, does anyone from FlashCut read this list? does anyone know anyone at
FlashCut that would read this message? if so, please forward it to them.

Now we could reverse engineer the protocol- its a serial port and would
be easy to tap into, but I dont want to do that- why should I write
software to help sell their hardware if they are not going to cooperate?

My first choice then is to develop CPNC on windows to support the
FlashCut controller, but if we are careful in its design the gui aspects
of it should work just as qwell driving an EMC/Linux system. Only the
interface part would need to be altered.

I think I have now set the record for the longest post to this list, so
its time to hang up. Anyone going to join me in building a great CPNC
system?

ron
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web: http://plsntcov.8m.com