--- In mach1mach2cnc@..., "P. J. Hicks"
<hickspj467@c...> wrote:
John,
I have been waiting to print out the Mach2 manual until there
little or no
changes. I have seen very little correspondence re the manual
lately. do
you feel it is in a 'lockdown' state presently?
PJH
Hi all:
That is a cruel question PJ ;-)
The text on Yahoo! does not properly cover the recent Constant
Velocity revisions so does not properly document Art's lockdown 4.0.
I have been struggling a bit because I can only work at the screen
for about 10 minutes as the repaired eye gets very tired.
I think that what I will do is refer to the CV modes on Configure
Logic and the other recent features as soon as possible and release
a manual for Mach2 4.0 that Art can post on his site by the coming
weekend. I would wait to print that.
Thanks for the further comments on Script documentation. Art and I
have discussed this after the previous input and what I will do is:
(a) Have the manual for Mach2Mill (and in due course Mach2Turn,
Mach2Plasma or whatever) which describes setting up AND using the
appropriate machine. These manuals will refer to Screen Designer,
Macros and Button Scripts but really only to suggest to users what
can be done - this will slightly reduce the current size.
(b) There will be a manual common to all machine type variants that
documents Screen Designer, loadable screens, Macros, Button Scripts
in detail with as many worked examples as I can scrounge (or write).
It will not attempt to teach the syntax and semantics of VBScript
but assume that the reader has struggled with the online
documentation from Microsoft (I too like books) or has a copy of
something like "VBScript in a Nutshell". This manual attempt to be
complete in that it will contain the OEM codes for controls (with a
reference to the MachDN versions for the very latest coding).
This will be a biggish task and cannot really be started in detail
until we can play with the proposed dynamic screens feature - so I
guess Mid April might make sense for a release.
The rationale is that I must minimise the duplication of text
inorder to keep maintenance as a manageble task. I agree that the
chaperts on setting up a machine will probably not be used much once
one is "up and running" but I do think that beginners will need to
run simple G-Code during the building of their machines so the
learing will be a rather "spiral-like" process. The architecture
does not help a "machine operator" but such a person will need lots
of detail on the actual machine controls, overrides etc. so needs
custom documentation/training.
So that's where we stand, do keep up your feedback on structure or
details - Every suggestion will probably help many people save time
an confusion.
John Prentice
