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IndustryArena Forum > Machine Controllers Software and Solutions > LinuxCNC (formerly EMC2) > A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal
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  1. #1
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    A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Hi,

    For the last few months, I have been working to design a graphical user interface for LinuxCNC. I am not a programmer, and I have been focusing on the design, and getting input from the LinuxCNC community.

    Here is a direct link to the Youtube video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRZ_AMuayoM&t=9s


    If this is the type of interface you might like, you might want to comment here:
    https://forum.linuxcnc.org/41-guis/3...rendaem#117619

  2. #2
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Sorry I don't have anything to contribute (I still haven't built my machine I plan on using LinuxCNC for, and I'm not much of a coder) but it looks pretty interesting to me.
    Hope you get more interest and some implementation help.

  3. #3
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Will it come on as I turn on linuxcnc like it does with mach3, if so it is very interesting.

  4. #4
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    I forgot to frame my question properly. Will it come on as I turn on linuxcnc without having done the machine setup first.

  5. #5
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    It's just a concept. It's not actually part of LinuxCNC at all until someone implements it.

  6. #6
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    I got it skrubol, she doesn't reply to anyone though, not here or linuxcnc forum.

  7. #7
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Hi, I do reply : )

    For far, it's just a mock-up, I was trying to get people behind it at LinuxCNC, but I have found quite the contrary.
    You may not know that LinuxCNC has off-forum meetings, and things are not looking so good for this interface project--unless others step up and ask for it.

    I will be happy to answer any question, either here or in the LinuxCNC thread.
    https://forum.linuxcnc.org/41-guis/3...al-by-brendaem

  8. #8
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Those off-forum meetings are the developers determining how they can improve the base software. LinuxCNC is open source. Which means the developers write and fix code in the base system, and if users wish cosmetic stuff such as the display you show above, it's up to you to either write it or find somebody who's willing to take the time and effort to code that display. Axis and a few others were developed by users who wished for something different than the displays supplied at the time. Same for the folks at Tormach, who took the base LinuxCNC code and developed an interface that worked with their machines.

    About the only things the developers should do, is accept bug reports and fix the bugs, work on the new releases which implement new features, improvements in performance, and fixes for problems. If you can talk them into starting from scratch and writing a new interface, that's good, but quite unlikely to happen. They have more important things to deal with than coming up with a new interface when they already have a number of working interfaces.

  9. #9
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Dozens of users wrote that they welcome another interface design. There seem to be two others interested in it now.

    Wendtmk, respectfully, I suspect that there are individuals who strongly want LinuxCNC to go quietly into the night.

    Openly, I am not the best at diplomacy, but the documentation hadn't been worked on in so long, that those who might have known how to write were at a loss to update it. That is bad for the LinuxCNC project because that means that not only is the project less attractive to prospective developers, but the torch is harder to pass to the next developer.

    The problem with this is: the knowledge base is being passed along by a few individuals who appear to tirelessly and wholeheartedly give of themselves to help others, and if anything should happen to them, LinuxCNC would surely die and be replaced.

    The distribution needed updating. Apparently, the maintainers did not know just how accessible and valuable the distro was, so how could they have been appreciated?

    As a newcomer, I was greeted with not only hostility from at least one individual, but a lack of objectivity so bad they they were given a ban warning, and on every thread I posted, they harassed me.

    LinuxCNC has some housekeeping to do.

  10. #10
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Who knows what drives the linuxcnc developers but I'm glad they do what they do.
    From a user point of view the documentation is much better than in the past. As for the rest of the docs I wouldn't know.
    Anyone who says "It only goes together one way" has no imagination.

  11. #11
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Dozens of users wrote that they welcome another interface design. There seem to be two others interested in it now.
    I'm sure there are folks who might be interested in another interface design. However, the developers already supply a number of working interfaces. A number of those interfaces were written and developed by other folks who are not on the LinuxCNC development team. The idea behind Open Source Software is you can get software for free from folks that write the software. If you want something different added to the base software, it's up to you to either write it yourself, or pay someone else to do it for you. The example of Tormach was given earlier. They took the base LinuxCNC and made changes that they wanted for their interface.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Wendtmk, respectfully, I suspect that there are individuals who strongly want LinuxCNC to go quietly into the night.
    Sure, but I would bet they are primarily in competition for users of LinuxCNC. I've been using LinuxCNC since back in the days when it was EMC2. It fit the requirements for the machine I designed, and with a little help both on the mailing list and the IRC channel, I got it up and running and it's been doing so for over 15 years. Not going to knock any other software controller, since the folks that use those like the way they work. The difference is, most all of them are commercial offerings. LinuxCNC is not. It's open source. I've made changes here and there that work for my machine. But that's not the obligation of the developers. They work on the base code, upgrading it, making it better, faster, stronger, etc. If the user is looking for something different cosmetically, that's on the user.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Openly, I am not the best at diplomacy, but the documentation hadn't been worked on in so long, that those who might have known how to write were at a loss to update it. That is bad for the LinuxCNC project because that means that not only is the project less attractive to prospective developers, but the torch is harder to pass to the next developer.
    The documentation gets worked on at almost every version change. It has to, to keep up with the changes in the base software. Are there errors in the docs, or are the docs not as well written as they should be? Sure. But those get fixed over time too. A lot of folks that do not write code have volunteered to work with the documentation and help fix errors. It's not perfect and probably never will be, but its a work in progress.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    The problem with this is: the knowledge base is being passed along by a few individuals who appear to tirelessly and wholeheartedly give of themselves to help others, and if anything should happen to them, LinuxCNC would surely die and be replaced.
    There are always new folks volunteering to help develop the software. The software is quite complicated, so it takes a dedicated team and it requires folks that are well versed in different areas.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    The distribution needed updating. Apparently, the maintainers did not know just how accessible and valuable the distro was, so how could they have been appreciated?
    The distribution gets updated quite frequently. New versions come out on a regular time line, with bug fixes released in between. Not sure what you mean by the above statement.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    As a newcomer, I was greeted with not only hostility from at least one individual, but a lack of objectivity so bad they they were given a ban warning, and on every thread I posted, they harassed me.
    There's jerks everywhere. I've been a moderator here for a number of years, as well as forum admin or moderator on a number of different forums. I see them all the time. I don't know what your original and follow up posts were, since I don't read the LinuxCNC forum, but based on your posts here, I think your expectations of the developers to write software for something you want that isn't part of the base code may be a little unrealistic. I've used open source software for years as a system and network administrator, and have written code for OS projects. If it's a bug that affects the software, or an upgrade that makes the software better, OS developers are usually all over that for active projects. For cosmetic changes, that's a lot lower priority, and maybe, if time and people are available, it might get worked on. On large software distributions with hundreds of thousands of lines of code, such as LinuxCNC, you probably won't get much of a response from the development team.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    LinuxCNC has some housekeeping to do.
    If you wish to have something not included in the software, it's something you'd need to do yourself, or have someone else do it for you. That may mean you'd need to pay for that work. Otherwise, perhaps you should look at commercially available software, and pitch the idea to the company's developers. Writing software is a large investment in time, to 1) initially write the software, 2) bug check to get it to compile, 3) bug check it to it ensures that it works with the base software, 4) rewrite it for new versions and upgrades, and work out the bug fixes in the mean while. You mentioned earlier that you aren't a coder. Take a software language programming course and see what all is involved with producing quality software. It takes a lot of work and ingenuity to produce software that does what it's supposed to do, with good error handling, and with as few bugs as possible at the release date.

    Mark

  12. #12
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Wendtmk, respectfully, some of LinuxCNC's web documentation isn't even on webpages. I am not sure of the documentation history, but it appears as if it were meant to be a book at one time, judging by the chapters and verse's that we do not usually see on modern web pages. The documentation is a work at risk of losing its process.

    Granted my diplomacy is poor, but so is/was the state of the documentation, when I posted about it. I think also that the Wiki has some good information in it that should be integrated into the main trunk. The forum is becoming become the defacto LinucCNC reference.

    I know that the creation of a new interface is not a trivial matter, and suggesting a new interface was not something I tread on lightly. Against the wishes of a few members, I worked for months to make sure that the proposal I have presented had as few gotchas and wrong turns as I could.

    I also feel bad for the creator(s) Gmoccapy. What a great too often shunned work.

    I was surprised to see any opposition to the inclusion of NativeCAM in the LinuxCNC. It's great, and it was written for LinuxCNC.

    It's bewildering why a probe screen--written especially for LinuxCNC isn't even on the distribution disk, but LibreOffice is?

    LinucCNC is vitally important to home-machinists and even the hacker community; I've heard from people who use it professionally in their job-shops as well.

    My situation and effort aside, I feel that conflicting corporate influence is preventing LinucCNC from growing.

  13. #13
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Wendtmk, respectfully, some of LinuxCNC's web documentation isn't even on webpages. I am not sure of the documentation history, but it appears as if it were meant to be a book at one time, judging by the chapters and verse's that we do not usually see on modern web pages. The documentation is a work at risk of losing its process.

    Granted my diplomacy is poor, but so is/was the state of the documentation, when I posted about it. I think also that the Wiki has some good information in it that should be integrated into the main trunk. The forum is becoming become the defacto LinucCNC reference.
    Documentation is always something that needs to be worked on, whether it's for commercial software, or Open Source. I'm not quite sure I understand your statement: "some of LinuxCNC's web documentation isn't even on webpages". How can it be "web documentation" if it's not on the web? Do you have any examples of this? Trying to follow along and see what you are talking about. The documentation comes in both the web pages and also pdf.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I know that the creation of a new interface is not a trivial matter, and suggesting a new interface was not something I tread on lightly. Against the wishes of a few members, I worked for months to make sure that the proposal I have presented had as few gotchas and wrong turns as I could.
    I went to the forum this morning and waded through all 35 pages of your original posting and the two pages of your most recent one. The only resistance I saw meted out was by you. Otherwise there were 37 pages of helpful ideas, and background on how LinuxCNC operates and what would need to be implemented in a GUI that runs LinuxCNC.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I also feel bad for the creator(s) Gmoccapy. What a great too often shunned work.
    I don't think anybody "shuns" any of the GUI's. People select interfaces on what they like. Some folks have simple machines and don't need a GUI that's very busy. Some people don't want to use touch screens. Some people are used to using industrial machine control screens. It's simply a matter of preference. I've used Axis from the beginning, and even though is has some shortcomings I'm happy with it doing what it does.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I was surprised to see any opposition to the inclusion of NativeCAM in the LinuxCNC. It's great, and it was written for LinuxCNC.
    Again, where was the opposition? I didn't see that in 37 pages of posts. I did see people who used other things to get the job done.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    It's bewildering why a probe screen--written especially for LinuxCNC isn't even on the distribution disk, but LibreOffice is?
    LibreOffice comes bundled with the base OS. Pretty sure the LinuxCNC developers don't have a say in that matter. They include LinuxCNC as a bundle with the OS, which used to be Ubuntu and is now the Debian distro.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    LinucCNC is vitally important to home-machinists and even the hacker community; I've heard from people who use it professionally in their job-shops as well.

    My situation and effort aside, I feel that conflicting corporate influence is preventing LinucCNC from growing.
    Now that brings a pretty good chuckle. In all the years I've been using LinuxCNC, the only time I've ever seen anything akin to corporate influence was when a certain company threatened the development group into changing the name of the software from EMC2 to LinuxCNC based on their fuzzy interpretation that we were infringing on their copyright. The development foundation went ahead and changed the name to LinuxCNC because they couldn't bear the cost of the legal battle to try and keep the name. I suspect a little less conspiracy theory about things like this, and less insinuating that "closed door meetings on the IRC" (which if you've ever been on the LinuxCNC IRC channel you'd know it's the furthest thing from closed door), along with all the support you had in making this happen that you've seemed to alienate, you probably would have gotten this to at least the alpha or beta stage by this point. All anybody that was interest in this project so far has seen is a lot of pretty pictures, but you haven't released the interface so the folks that wanted to write the code for you can get started.

    I don't know what your motivations or expectations are for this project, don't really have a dog in this kerfluffle. It would be a very nice thing to see an interface like this offered for the LinuxCNC user community. Nobody would stop you from having this put in the controller distro if it all works and does what you say it's supposed to do. But it's gotta work before it gets included.

    Mark

  14. #14
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Wendtmk, I agree that there were a lot of helpful suggestions from the forum. There was also someone on the forum, heckling me with every post, and yes, he had supporters. At least one of his posts were removed.

    Much of the current documentation is being done with on the web forum. I stand by my assertion that the documentation needs to be updated, and the web forum is becoming the manual. The problem with that is the information in not contextual, nor is it concise. Part of the documentation is not even in HTML/XHTML/XML, but in plain text files. These files have no menu and no contents. Maintaining proper documentation will help draw developers and ensure that the parting of any few LinuxCNC citizens will not cause severe problems.

    The LinuxCNC people decide what is or is not on the release distribution; that is the normal way of distributions.

    I was not chucking to read that much of the LinuxCNC internal communication process is done by IRC, which I find exceptional, suggesting that LinuxCNC is being run more like a clique than a proper organization. IRC is a stateless protocol that leaves no regular document trail, which is the fast track to run an organization on a meandering path.

    My motivation was simple: to try to give something back. As you could see in those web pages, I worked for months to bring a design forward for proposal. I am sorry you don't see any value in my effort because it does not yet suit you. I never stated that my design was perfect, but it was a way forward.

    I remembered LinuxCNC from some years ago, when it shared the brainshare and spotlight of many popular websites, it has been my goal return LinuxCNC to that spotlight by encouraging modernization. If certain parts of the organization need a closer look for that to happen, so be it.

    I hoped to span the gap between Gmoccapy and Axis by designing a modular interface. Though my method was uncivilized and undiplomatic, I had hoped to encourage people to pull the documentation sources together, as well as update the distro. Lastly, I tried to encourage LinuxCNC to support its supports, and was met with resistance, such as the Probe Screen and NativeCAM. BTW, I've seen posts where at least one person did not want NativeCAM included on the distribution because it was CAD-like.

    [In the case for NativeCAM, this leaves the developer to work to needlessly deal with the same installation problems for new people, thereby taking their time away from programming.]

    They say that those in authority are those who accept responsibility.
    What then are your plans for LinuxCNC's future?

  15. #15
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Wendtmk, I agree that there were a lot of helpful suggestions from the forum. There was also someone on the forum, heckling me with every post, and yes, he had supporters. At least one of his posts were removed.
    So a few users of the software had issues with you in one way or another. I doubt very much it was the developers, since they don't use the forum much if at all. I see them quite often on the email list, and saw them quite often on the IRC channel when I had problems with the setup of my machine.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Much of the current documentation is being done with on the web forum. I stand by my assertion that the documentation needs to be updated, and the web forum is becoming the manual. The problem with that is the information in not contextual, nor is it concise. Part of the documentation is not even in HTML/XHTML/XML, but in plain text files. These files have no menu and no contents. Maintaining proper documentation will help draw developers and ensure that the parting of any few LinuxCNC citizens will not cause severe problems.
    Not sure where you get that idea. All the current documentation comes out with each new release, and is also posted on the LinuxCNC web site in both HTML and in pdf format. I for one would not depend on a web forum as my source for any documentation as it is not official and is not bundled with the release or on the web site under the documentation section. It may be workarounds or new stuff people find.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    The LinuxCNC people decide what is or is not on the release distribution; that is the normal way of distributions.
    To an extent. Sometimes packages can be removed, other times a lot of things are just left alone. I would presume there really isn't much of a difference between the LinuxCNC Wheezy OS release and the non-LinuxCNC Debian Wheezy release. Libre Office tends to come standard with just about every Linux release there is. If you don't like it on your machine there's always dpkg -r and you can remove it from your machine.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I was not chucking to read that much of the LinuxCNC internal communication process is done by IRC, which I find exceptional, suggesting that LinuxCNC is being run more like a clique than a proper organization. IRC is a stateless protocol that leaves no regular document trail, which is the fast track to run an organization on a meandering path.
    I've captured my entire sessions on IRC. If the developers are having a distro meeting on their channel you can bet they are doing the same thing. It's a lot easier than taking notes of the meeting since the software does the work for you. It's all in a text file so it's easily searched. The forum started long after both the email channels and the IRC channels for both developers and users came about. Some folks like the forum, some don't. I prefer the email/IRC channel for my needs.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    My motivation was simple: to try to give something back. As you could see in those web pages, I worked for months to bring a design forward for proposal. I am sorry you don't see any value in my effort because it does not yet suit you. I never stated that my design was perfect, but it was a way forward.
    It's not that I don't see any value in your project. It's just that it really wouldn't be much use to me on my machines. I'm happy with what Axis has to offer for what I use my machines for. I'm familiar enough with UNIX/Linux and LinuxCNC that I'm comfortable working under the hood so to speak and would rather edit files than what buzzers and bells come with a GUI. But that's just me. I'm sure others like to see a well thought out GUI that takes away the need for burrowing into the system and fixing things. As a long time big iron system and network administrator who rarely used any kind of Windows or Mac machine, that's just what I'm used to. I like the minimalist approach to my computer software.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I remembered LinuxCNC from some years ago, when it shared the brainshare and spotlight of many popular websites, it has been my goal return LinuxCNC to that spotlight by encouraging modernization. If certain parts of the organization need a closer look for that to happen, so be it.
    I see. And I suppose you wish to be the one to spearhead this closer look at the organization and improve it?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I hoped to span the gap between Gmoccapy and Axis by designing a modular interface. Though my method was uncivilized and undiplomatic, I had hoped to encourage people to pull the documentation sources together, as well as update the distro. Lastly, I tried to encourage LinuxCNC to support its supports, and was met with resistance, such as the Probe Screen and NativeCAM. BTW, I've seen posts where at least one person did not want NativeCAM included on the distribution because it was CAD-like.
    Not saying I saw much of anything that was uncivilized or undiplomatic, but you do realize if you want to head up a major piece of software that requires outside work like the coding, you need not piss off the folks who were willing to volunteer their expertise and time to actually write code to make your images come to life? And that you actually had to release said images so the coders actually had something to work with? I didn't go back through all the other sub forums to see what had transpired between you and others on the forum on other topics.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    [In the case for NativeCAM, this leaves the developer to work to needlessly deal with the same installation problems for new people, thereby taking their time away from programming.
    In the case of NativeCAM having installation problems, it's the developer of NativeCAM's responsibility to support software issues like installation, configuration and run time problems, not the LinuxCNC folks. Not sure why you seem to think that it's "needlessly dealing" when it's the developers software outside of LinuxCNC that's causing the problem.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    They say that those in authority are those who accept responsibility.
    What then are your plans for LinuxCNC's future?
    My plans? My plans are to continue using the software the way I want to. If I can contribute to something, I will and have in the past. I use email and the IRC for my communications and while I'm a member of the forum, I'm not an active one. Don't see any real reason to become an active forum member when I get everything I need from the other sources. I'm not in authority within the LinuxCNC community, just a very happy user. And I'll keep on using it till the day I don't need to machine anything.

    Just the same as you're free to do as you want with the software. But it looks like for whatever reasons, you seem to have lost the support from the folks that were ready, willing and able to take the ball and run with it. It's your project, do what you see fit with it. But don't blame others just because it ain't getting done.

  16. #16
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    It's interesting that you are suggesting that I not take one or two people seriously, and yet, you are here working his thread chapter and verse.

    Many of the NativeCAM installation issues are the standard fare, which would be all but eliminated if it was included on the distribution, but apparently LinuxCNC is all about not supporting those who support it. A factory comes to mind where the machinists spend their time putting the products in crates, while the packers stand around with their hands in their pockets.

    Someone took the time to write a touch probe screen for LinuxCNC, and it's not on the distribution--really?
    Are there so many people taking time to write custom code for LinuxCNC that there isn't time to put one more thing the distribution?
    And yet there's an office suit on the disk?

    Most people who use LinuxCNC know that it uses a low-latency kernel which requires a custom compile, which is likely beyond most Linux users, so the lowly install disk is really an invaluable resource, and I got the impression that no one knew how invaluable the distribution is.

    I suspect that most LinuxCNC users are machinists and machinist enthusiasts--not system administrators.

    [Me, I once compile Solome as in Solome mecha, Code Aster, and even compiled and installed Gnome, which is no trivial matter because of the monkey-media and gstreamer induced dependency hell--BUT--when kernels are another matter.]

    [ As a personal challenge one of my friends compiled LinuxCNC--including the kernel for the Raspberry Pi. It's not a trivial matter. ]

    ~

    Axis, for all it's flexibility, is getting a little long in the tooth. In the end if it's not replaced, LinuxCNC will be.
    No, the young replacement programmers just won't understand it any more than the look of Windows 95.

    I thought that perhaps Gmoccapy might have been too different from Axis to be accepted, well, you know, for a LinuxCNC supported thing, but I thought that merging Axis and Gmoccapy and the aforementioned interfaces would be a way forward.

    It appears that some people peripherally involved with LinuxCNC, want it not to grow, and want it to go quietly into the night.

  17. #17
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    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    It's interesting that you are suggesting that I not take one or two people seriously, and yet, you are here working his thread chapter and verse.
    Eh, it's a forum and it's only a conversation. I'm not attacking you, just responding to questions and such.

    [QUOTE=BrendaEM;2225492]Many of the NativeCAM installation issues are the standard fare, which would be all but eliminated if it was included on the distribution, but apparently LinuxCNC is all about not supporting those who support it. A factory comes to mind where the machinists spend their time putting the products in crates, while the packers stand around with their hands in their pockets.[/QUOTE}

    Still not quite understanding why you insist another Open Source product should become the responsibility of the developers of LinuxCNC and why they should include it in their distro with the inherent installation problems. I don't use NativeCAM, so I for one would really not want that included in a distro. If someone wants to use it, download the package or source and either install or compile and install. It's not required that LinuxCNC include third party software that doesn't directly impact their own software. If that were they case they'd need to include every other Open Source CAM or CAD package out there that runs under Linux. If you want a software package for your machine that doesn't directly impact LinuxCNC, download it yourself.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Someone took the time to write a touch probe screen for LinuxCNC, and it's not on the distribution--really?
    Are there so many people taking time to write custom code for LinuxCNC that there isn't time to put one more thing the distribution?
    And yet there's an office suit on the disk?
    Did they go through the official channels with the developers and ask to have it included with the distro since it works in conjunction with Axis or other displays? I don't know, do you? Does it meet the requirements to be included in the distro?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Most people who use LinuxCNC know that it uses a low-latency kernel which requires a custom compile, which is likely beyond most Linux users, so the lowly install disk is really an invaluable resource, and I got the impression that no one knew how invaluable the distribution is.
    That's your opinion. I'm sure quite a good number of people realize that the RTOS is the secret behind the bullet-proof performance of LinuxCNC. Not quite seeing your point behind this statement though. Real TIme is required for LinuxCNC to operate unless you're just running in the sim environment where you don't really care if the OS interrupts the controller.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I suspect that most LinuxCNC users are machinists and machinist enthusiasts--not system administrators.
    I think you'd be quite surprised at the number of folks on the mailing list and other sources who are somewhat, or even quite, familiar with software coding. The only reason I mentioned my background was for an explanation of why I like minimalism in my interfaces. I'm not a huge GUI fan, though in many circumstances, they have their place. And the other reason it was given was you asked why I preferred what I do.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    [Me, I once compile Solome as in Solome mecha, Code Aster, and even compiled and installed Gnome, which is no trivial matter because of the monkey-media and gstreamer induced dependency hell--BUT--when kernels are another matter.]
    I've been writing and compiling code since the mid 80's, using Ada, C, C++, Java, Lisp, Fortran and other languages I've forgotten. That's neither here nor there. I've been compiling Linux kernels for over 20 years. So what? What does that have to do with all this?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    [ As a personal challenge one of my friends compiled LinuxCNC--including the kernel for the Raspberry Pi. It's not a trivial matter. ]
    Again, what does this have to do with what we're talking about?

    ~

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Axis, for all it's flexibility, is getting a little long in the tooth. In the end if it's not replaced, LinuxCNC will be.
    No, the young replacement programmers just won't understand it any more than the look of Windows 95.
    Axis is a nice, rather straightforward GUI that works. It may or may not be everybody's cup of tea. But it does have a pretty good size user base. People have contributed software over the years, which is how Axis was introduced to LinuxCNC. Heck, Tormach took the bull by the horns and wrote their own interface to LinuxCNC. Open Source is just that. If you write something, and it works, and you go through the contribution process, it will probably be accepted into the distro. But, you have to make the effort to do that. No one is going to come knocking on your door begging you to let them include your software into their distro. It's up to you. So, when are you going to start coding your wonderful GUI, and get it introduced to the distro?

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    I thought that perhaps Gmoccapy might have been too different from Axis to be accepted, well, you know, for a LinuxCNC supported thing, but I thought that merging Axis and Gmoccapy and the aforementioned interfaces would be a way forward.
    Some folks like Gmoccapy and have a use for it. Some people like Axis and have a use for it. Some people like more, some people like less. But it needs to be working software that interfaces pretty seamlessly with the base code. All we've seen from you is a bunch of pretty pictures of a proposed interface. While that may get some people interested and excited about the interface, let's face it. In it's present form it doesn't do anything except look nice. It has to do something before it'll ever be accepted.

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    It appears that some people peripherally involved with LinuxCNC, want it not to grow, and want it to go quietly into the night.
    It appears that's purely _your_ opinion. My opinion is just the opposite. And it seems the folks on the email list, the forum, and the IRC seem to share that too. Get the GUI coded, show the folks in the community it works, and I'm sure it'll be accepted. Otherwise, it's what we call "vaporware." A lot of promises, but nothing that actually works.

  18. #18

    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Quote Originally Posted by BrendaEM View Post
    Hi,

    For the last few months, I have been working to design a graphical user interface for LinuxCNC. I am not a programmer, and I have been focusing on the design, and getting input from the LinuxCNC community.

    Here is a direct link to the Youtube video.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRZ_AMuayoM&t=9s


    If this is the type of interface you might like, you might want to comment here:
    https://forum.linuxcnc.org/41-guis/3...rendaem#117619
    This user Interface will be very helpful for the LinuxCNC user.

    Do you have any quote or any cost if we consider to pay a programmer to finish this Touch LinuxCNC User Interface ?

    https://www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/

  19. #19
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    260

    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Hi automationtechinc, I am trying to find some help to work on it.

  20. #20
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Posts
    260

    Re: A New Widescree-Touch LinuxCNC User Interface Proposal

    Wendtmk, seeing that you are not a fan of GUIs, and gave 10 paragraphs of opinion for one question...

    Would you please consider sitting this thread out?

    I promise to try my best to keep my responses respectful, and accurate to the best of my abilities.

    I am trying to get programming help for the interface, and that is also my purpose here, here, where you devalued my multiple-month design effort in an open forum.

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