Re: Interface. Gauging interest.

Hello Phil,

The original source for EMC was released as public domain, having
been paid for by US taxpayers.

It is only the derviatives from that source which carry the
GPL "burden". Art started with the old code, and hasn't looked back.
A few weeks ago he mentioned that he was working on an area that may
well have been th eonly place there was stil some otriginal EMC code
(not that it matters, because the code he derived from is 100%public
domain.)

Turbo CNC is similar. I have dome some things using Dave's old code
which carried the suggestion "build your own empire with it, I don't
care". Later, when Jerry and Tony? came into the project, the source
was no longer truly free to use.

Carl wrote DeskNC in VB before he did anything with the EMC code. He
then used the same early version (that we were all using back then,
when Tom ?-274interpreter, Fred Proctor-code integration, and ??-
NML, were all doing this as a NIST govt. project) that Art did tyo
create the free software DeskNC-RT. From that point on I have no
insider knowledge of what Carl has been doing. I Only see the
results.

The biggest difference IMO is that Art did not do what many CNC
control writers before him have done; go into a "closet" and decide
everything on their own. He asked folks with more knowledge of CNC
for advice from the beginning. More importantly, HE LISTENED, and
implemented those suggestions RAPIDLY.

Even better, when he saw areaas of conflict; he almost always strove
to create configurability instead of requiring specifics.

Anybody can make mach look pretty much however they want it to, and
configure it to do whqtever they want it to as well. that's HUGE
strength in such a varied arena as CNC.

IMO, nobody else even comes close. I know how hard Art has worked to
clean up the EMC code, and I know he has shared with the EMC folks
at least some of what he's done. Even if somebody could claim that
he "owed" his source to GPL, I'd fight with him against any pwerson
who tried. that man has sweat blood over that code, and we're all
benefactors of his work.
You don't need source to use Mach3 in ways that others programs
WOULD require source to achieve. The configurability is in there.

He's earned the right to call it his own, even though he already has
that right due to the code base he worked from.

Ballendo


--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com, "Phil Mattison"
<mattison20@...> wrote:

>
> I read the "CNC Explosion" article on the camtronics-cnc site. It

says:

>
> "Concurrently, Art Fenerty and Karl Carken obtained the free

source code and

> developed their interpretations of the EMC program fixing many of

the

> problems and making it run much faster and better. Art (

www.artofcnc.ca)

> solved the problem with windows timing issues with the parallel

port by

> using a internal timer found on most motherboards. This smooth out

the pulse

> stream and now made using windows 95,98 and XP a viable

alternative. His

> latest version called Mach2( cost $150) is and awesome program

that is

> divided into to portions."
>
> It sounds like Mach is derived from EMC. I have often wondered if

it was

> because it sure looks like EMC. Since EMC is released under GPL

(open

> source), doesn't that require releasing the source code for Mach?
> --
> Phil Mattison