Re: emc really needs a copyleft cad/cam package

[Jeff Barlow <Jeff-at-Barlow.net>]

Anne, Ray, Terry, et all,

I've been lurking (mostly) here on the EMC and CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO lists for
a while, and when I saw Terry start this thread, I realized that,
obviously, I was not the only one who had been thinking about this. I'm
starting to believe we might just be able to round up the right group of
folks here to do this sort of thing. 

I started getting paid to write code in 1972 so I've had time to make
most of the dumber mistakes on someone else's nickel. Most of my time
was put in on "close to the iron" kind of work, device drivers, embedded
systems, task schedulers, that sort of stuff.

I've worked on large projects that went well, and on some that were
total disasters. Over the years I've developed some skill at being able
to tell which are which early on. I've even done a little project
management. (Never again!)

It may just be that we share somewhat similar backgrounds, but I must
say I agree with Anne about the sort of approach in which I would be
willing to take part. I would want to see a lot of English written
before starting any code.

Little filter type utilities can be successfully "hacked" into
existence, but I firmly believe an application with a complex UI must be
designed first, then coded. I am, however, in favor of coding up a bunch
of throw away prototypes of parts of a system. I feel this is of the
most value for things like testing interactions with hardware, and test
driving UI's to see if they "feel right".

I'm more or less retired now, so I would be willing to lend a hand to a
CAD/CAM project, provided it "smells right" to me.

Re the issue of selecting a discussion forum: I think both the EMC and
CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO lists are a good place to talk about "what" this thing
might do, but we should then find somewhere out of the way when (if) we
get down to the "how" issues. We will need some parking place for
documentation fairly early on, though. 

I've rambled on enough, have at me.

Jeff

On Sat, 18 Nov 2000 16:38:26 -0500 (EST), Anne wrote:

>
>I didn't mean to question the relationship of a CAM package with emc, I meant that
>somebody, sometime, decided in a rational manner what emc was to be and set up a 
>process to get from "let's make an opensource controller" to code.
>
>I'm saying that if we start on another application, a CAD/CAM package, we 
>cannot assume that we don't have to do any design.
>
>As programmers our natural inclination is to write code, not documents. 
>This instinct is dangerous.
>
>If you all are committed to a process of "well, won't get written by sitting on our
>hands - lets cut code" count me out. In the 24 years I've been writing software I've
>seen every project that started that way fail, and most that started with a design
>succeed.
>
>Your comments are a classic example of why designing first works.
>You want it to produce RS274. I want it to produce the peculiar variant of HPGL
>that my Roland Modela takes. Probably there are controllers out there that take
>various variations on each. This is a clear place for a plug-in architecture.
>The Roland uses windoze based software and looks like a printer. emc runs on rtlinux
>and looks like a filter.
>