Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Re: Interface. Gauging interest.

Well, it's not as if I would sue anyone. That's the problem with GPL, it's
pretty much a toothless tiger until you get to the level where you see
worm-wrestling matches like SCO v IBM. I downloaded the source for EMC in an
effort to find source for the NIST implementation of the RS274NGC
interpreter. The NIST web site blathers on and on about it but if they
provide the source they hide it pretty well. I presume that's the
government-funded "public domain" stuff you mentioned. The code is in there
but looks pretty ancient, like it was written to interpret G-Code directly
from a paper-punch tape.

Anyway, the open-source strategy seems to involve getting a bunch of
starry-eyed college students to work for nothing in the hope they will
become famous for inventing a better software mousetrap, and then
cherry-picking their work until you have something you can wrap in a nice
user interface and sell for a profit. I guess P.T. Barnum knew what he was
talking about. But what you end up with is a large ball of band-aids.
Lipstick on a pig. If there ever is a legal challenge it probably won't come
from a person, but from a large corporation, and your opinion won't make
much difference.

After a careful reading of the various flavors of RS274 it looks to me like
RS274NGC is pretty much an outdated piece of crap when it comes to machine
control, surviving only by virtue of familiarity and inertia. Not that I
think it is going away any time soon, but it certainly doesn't look like
golden handcuffs if you're interested in the general motion-control market.
I suspect it may not really have much of a strangle-hold on the hobby CNC
market either, since that will have many new-comers if it is in fact growing
rapidly.
--
Phil Mattison
http://www.ohmikron.com/

----- Original Message -----
From: ballendo <ballendo@...>
To: <CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 3:52 PM
Subject: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] 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
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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