Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: RoboFac / Stewart-Gough Platform / Hexapod Milling Machine

On Tuesday 27 September 2005 14:43, Mike wrote:
> 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.

I think it would be fair to say most of the NIST team hold a PhD, and several
of the outside contributors were either working towards, or hold similar
qualifications. It would also be fair to say much of the original code was
geared towards proof of concept and profiling execution times.

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

The code is being "cleaned up" in places, and rewritten in others. RCSlib has
been replaced with libnml, which is a much reduced subset of RCSlib. Key
areas are being reworked at present to improve data throughput.

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

Sure - Check the cia.navi.cx stats, the Sourceforge pages, or even the emc-dev
& commit lists. One thing is certain, EMC is still alive and being used on
small desktop mills and really large iron.



Regards, Paul.


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