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Re: CNCZEUS is now Open source
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýI know we are running a bit off topic with this thread, but
I'll throw in my two cents.
?
MS-DOS was very good and relatively easy?for controlling
anything and everything because it allowed you take control of everything. Most
of the time only one application was running at a time so you could take control
of the hardware and software interrupts without much problems. The problems came
when TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) started making the scene.? We all
remember Borland's Sidekick. These were programs that you'd load and they would
run in the background, then you could pop them up at any time with the use of
HotKeys. They had a bad habit of taking control of so many interrupts they
interfered with the main program trying to run.
?
I have forgotten much, if not almost all, of my hardware
design and software programming. If I were to ever attempt to CNC any machine I
would have to bring myself back up to date on this, which would mean starting
all over again.
Michael - California, USA Micro-Mark MicroLux 7x16 LMS 3990 Hi-Torque Mill with power feed ?
From:
7x12minilathe@... [mailto:7x12minilathe@...]
?
Sent: Friday, July 28, 2017 11:34 AM To: 7x12minilathe@... Subject: Re: [7x12minilathe] CNCZEUS is now Open source
Yeah, there's definitely a whole
'nother language when programmers start talking to each other.
??
Basically it means that MS-DOS exposes
the most low-level hardware functions of the computer to any program that wants
to control them. ?Sending pulses to a CNC system requires very fine control
of timing of the output ports (by means of "interrupts"). This direct control
afforded by DOS is an advantage for CNC. ?But it's also DOS's
downfall--it's almost impossible to prevent software from freezing or crashing
the whole system if it's badly or m aliciously written. Anyone who was using DOS
back at the beginning remembers having to reboot frequently to recover from
crashes.
Windows, on the other hand
(especially early versions), is software that runs "on top" of DOS--sort of a
fly-by-wire system where the software doesn't directly control the hardware, but
it talks to another layer of software that talks to the ports. ?Windows is
a multitasking system (unlike DOS which is single tasking only), so other
programs might be in competition for those same ports. ?It also uses a lot
of processing power for ?the Windows graphical interface, keeping track of
mouse movements, etc. ?All of this makes timing those pulses to output
ports very tricky, especially on slower machines, so Windows CNC programs tended
to have problems with skipped steps, delayed pulses, etc. ?
Bottom line, the things
that make Windows a more versatile system for most kinds of software make it
really bad at CNC control; and the things that make DOS clunky and insecure for
other kinds of software makes it not so bad at CNC control.
The later versions of
Windows (and faster hardware) have improved things quite a bit. ?Starting
with Windows NT and (I think) Windows 8, it was no longer overlaid on DOS. But
there are still a few layers of software and drivers between the user interface
and the low-level hardware, and it still is a multitasking system. ?It
takes some skilled programming to get fast, accurately timed pulses to the
output ports.
From: "'Ellis Cory' ellis103@... [7x12minilathe]" <7x12minilathe@...> To: 7x12minilathe@... Sent: Friday, July 28, 2017 2:02 PM Subject: RE: [7x12minilathe] CNCZEUS is now Open source ?
One of the problems may be that a lot
of us on here speak English (well I do) and the message below makes no sense
?
Rgds.
????????
Ellis
?
?
? I see that it runs on MS-DOS. ? At first
this might seem primitive. ? But if you have ever written any DOS software
what's going on is your software runs on "bare metal". ? To use more modern
terms, MS-DOS simply loads the software then runs it allowing complete root
level access to the entire PC. ? There is not scheduler and OS to deal
with. ?? ? To say this again on LinuxCNC terms, every
MS-DOS program is in effect a real-time HAL module. ? ? ? Yes it is primitive as it uses a full up Intel
X86 as it it wh ere a micro controller with no OS. ? But that might not be
a bad thing for this application. |
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