We now think EMC may indeed be practical, and we are going to try an implementation.

["Stephen B. Patterson" <stevieb-at-chisp.net>]

All,

Thank you for your comments and criticisms.  Collectively, you have indeed
convinced us to try an experimental implementation of EMC for the indexer.  

Our deadline to choose an operating environment is upon us.  It is
important for us to quickly get an understanding of the EMC implementation
and operating environments, as we had considered writing our own RT-DOS
drivers and extensions.  While we knew that approach would be a great deal
of work, we also knew that it was an environment that would be stable, easy
to control and extend.  

We do indeed feel that, for the hobbyist market we are aiming for, Terry
has it exactly right, wherein - "These people wish to put it in a pretty
package on one CD where the end user inserts and presses go. "  It is
important that compiled, run-time versions be distributed with the indexer.
 This distribution will allow actual metal removal to quickly take place
with the hobbyist machinist, and that the initial burden of learning a
machine control language and operating environment is minimized.  We would
not presume to separately market or sell EMC software  - we will include a
non-copyrighted version at no extra charge with the indexer harware package.

If a few feathers are ruffled, I sincerely apologize to you all.  

My thanks to Jon Elson, who answered our concerns on a point-by-point
basis.  Well done!

My thanks to Tim Goldstein, who offered to help us with the implementation.
 When we actually have an indexer device ready, Tim, you will be the first
one we call!

My thanks to George Potter - we only use Mr. Bill's OS, Win95-98, and since
he is already rich enough, we wouldn't want to embarass him with any more
bucks than he has now.   As George writes "many 'commercial' programs are
buggy and actually are "works in progress" .....  how many programs do you
have version 1 of, and still use in your business?"  
We use no version 1 of anything and never have.  For sheer persistency in
the pursuit of excellence, I'd have to say that - in the case of business
software - Ed Trujillo of Contact Plus Corporation wins the customer
service award hands down, as he has never failed to post and send me a bug
fix within a day or two - and this has been true for nearly thirteen years
and innumerable versions of our using Contact Plus!  George, go to their
web site <www.contactplus.com> and download their shareware contact manager
for free!  It is only one release behind the commercial version.

My thanks to Steve Carlisle - You are correct.  Writing great software is
the hardest thing we know - and while we may implement EMC for the indexer,
we'd not now make the presumption of trying to support a full multi-axis
version of such software on a commercial basis.

My thanks to Herman Bruyninckx - and I've never used MS WORD.  On the other
hand, we have had few problems from the use of WordPerfect and no problems
with converting our WordPerfect file format to the many versions of WORD
when the need arises.

My thanks to Matt Shaver - Yes, Stephen B. Patterson and me are the same
person, although I have had my doubts and been quite suspicious of him for
a long time now . . . .

My thanks to Ian W. Wright in the U.K. - Ian, the goal is: get this indexer
released on time. We've been running any number of UNIX versions for
donkey's years.  Your comment "I had a working EMC installation up and
running on a fresh built computer in less than a couple of hours." was the
final straw that convinced us to try EMC.

To all the folks at NIST who work hard at building EMC - We apologize if we
have offended you, none was meant.  we are sure these comments have been
instructive and your restraint in commenting has been most telling.  We
will look forward to working with your software.

To everyone else, thank you for taking the time to read this discussion.

Steve











Stephen B. Patterson                           <stevieb-at-chisp.net>
4019 Perry Street, Denver, Colorado  USA       80212-2171
01-303-480-1439 Voice       01-303-480-1439 Fax on request
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