Boss 5 retrofitting project

Thanks for all the info guys. My Gecko 201's are on the way. I'm
going to try to reuse the power supply, and I can dig up an old pc
pretty easily. Do I need anything between the PC and Geckos? Les
mentioned a breakout board and gave a web address, does it need to
be that one, or would any work. I've seen different software
packages discussed on here, but at the time I was just thinking of
something to generate g-code, not actually run the machine. What
are the advantages and disadvantages of each. I want something that
will run g-code, because this is how I write most programs, but
conversational is good too. Price is definitely a factor. I want
something that can do 3d contouring, and high speed 3d contouring
(lots of fast really tiny moves) would be even better. By the way,
I've seen things that say 2.5 axes, what is half an axis anyway? I
plan to take pictures and post the entire process on my web page
(www.clymermachine.com) but the way I get around to those things, it
will probably be a couple weeks before I get that done.

Nathan Clymer