Re: [Emc-users] Mark

[Robin S. <li...@re...>]

On Tuesday 30 September 2003 20:13, Markwayne wrote:
> Most of the tea here in the south US is made to be served cold, teas
> blended for it are commonalty available. I make a gallon (US) at a time.

cold tea? yeuuk! .. tea is best drunk hot, even on a hot day!

> You slow....I just downloaded the EMC CVS and the shock at all the bits
> and pieces still hasn't worn off.

yes .. its quite a sight isn't it!

<this should really be on the developers list I guess>

> To Robin to start off,
>
> Do you think, as the keeper parts of the code going into V2.0 (the
> proverbial) should be re written with C++ or not? Not being fix it clean
> it but not re architect it.

ooh, I am but a humble scribe, and certainly not the emc2 pumpking by any 
means.

having said that, I am a firm believer in C++ for large projects. I know some 
of the guys on here are C type people who will have no truck with C++, but 
having seen the ummm .. ahh .. knitting that emc has got itself into with C I 
think a C++ based approach is worth a try. There are some really obvious bits 
of emc where an Object Oriented approach would really clean things up ... and 
by encapsulating the ideas inside classes we'd clean it up a treat and 
possibly make it understandable by more people, that would encourage more 
development and that would improve things ... maybe.

Certainly the current state of affairs with around 200 global variables and 
250 global functions is not easy for a new would-be developer to get to grips 
with ... If we can make use of "The Awesome Power Of Objects"(tm) to just 
split it up into understandable and cleanly implemented blocks, than that 
will be well worth doing and a step forward. I did spend the best part of a 
week trying to unpick the emctask stuff into a 'TaskPlanner, a Machine etc' 
as objects I got part way there, but it was doing my head in and decided it 
needed a major look at with a lump hammer.  Regardless of how emc2 turns out 
I can tell you that whatever I do will be in C++, if that gets used in the 
main project, great, if not then hey ho, I can live with that too.

personally, I am writing bits for my own use on my plasma tables in C++ (for  
various plasma specific tasks such as varying velocity based on material 
thickness, current, arc radius etc)

for more general consumption I have started looking at a 'modular' 
implementation of emcio which I hope to publish very shortly (other work 
permitting) once I get my head around jmk's HAL stuff ... in theory, if it 
works out, it should plug into the existing emc implentation and Just 
Work(tm) watch(this->space());

-- 
Robin Szemeti

Redpoint Consulting Limited
Real Solutions For A Virtual World