Re: RoboFac / Stewart-Gough Platform / Hexapod Milling Machine

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, Stephen Wille Padnos

> Did you ever find the BDI (Brain Dead Install)?

I think you miss his point. He didn't mention installation. He said
it was difficult to code for with an ackward build system.

> As for coding, there is an option to install a "full development
> system",

Again, I think you miss his point. He's doesn't mention installing
the build system, but *using* it.

As someone who makes their living writing code for embedded Linux
devices, I can't completely disagree with him, except when he says
that EMC doesn't have the capabilities he needed for his machine. It
almost certainly does. The problem is wrapping your head around the
needlessly complex codebase. I've looked at EMC more than once with
the hope of changing some simple things I don't like. I gave up every
time because I just didn't have the time to scrutinize and figure out
the tortured codepaths.

Granted, it's a complex thing to control a machine tool and the code
will reflect that complexity. But EMC is an example, IMHO, of what I
call "professor code" or "PhD programming".

I don't know the complete background of the originators of EMC at
NIST, but I'm thinking there was a doctor involved, and I don't mean
an MD.

EMC2 is supposed to address some of this, like dispensing with the
need for RCS (is this true?) and cleaning other things up.

I haven't checked back in a while. Is emc2 progressing?