emc-users list, driver status, and pre-2.6.0?

Hi, all;

I've been reading a lot in the last few weeks about current development for Linuxcnc, including the development list, the users list, about the Machinekit fork, and status of various bits of code.

I've been able to answer a lot of my own questions about things thus far related to where things are at, but I have a few remaining questions to be answered.

I did try signing up for the EMC-USERS list, but nothing seems to have happened to my request for access there. Anyone know how long it normally takes to get signed up?

Other than the above, my questions are:

1) Is the best place to talk about Linuxcnc the emc-users list, or here? It seems a bit old fashioned to use a mailing list, but that's where most of the traffic for discussion is. It also seems odd to me that this forum doesn't echo/gateway the list like many forums do, IE forum posts become e-mails and vice versa, so there's only one place to communicate.

2) What's the status of the wj200 user space driver offered by Curt Dutton? It looks from the list like he requested a merge a couple of times, Seb requested some changes to the submitted code, and then the issue got dropped? Is the same functionality available using the mb2hal component, or should I look at converting the sj200vfd driver for use? For reference, I'm talking about the discussion here:
sourceforge.net/p/emc/mailman/search/?q=wj200

3) It looks like pre-2.6.0 is progressing along... is there a particular branch that people should be testing on/working with? I'm trialling a checked-out master myself, but if there's a particular code set the developers want the bugs beaten out of, I'd like to know.

Thanks,
Erik

Hi

1) Is the best place to talk about Linuxcnc the emc-users list, or here? It seems a bit old fashioned to use a mailing list, but that's where most of the traffic for discussion is. It also seems odd to me that this forum doesn't echo/gateway the list like many forums do, IE forum posts become e-mails and vice versa, so there's only one place to communicate.

If you just want to talk about Lcnc, use the mailing list. Unfortunately there are some contributors who 'just talk' and the noise to signal ratio can be very high on occasions.

For a specific problem, start with the forum, you will soon be advised if the complexity level or work required suits another venue.
The advantage is that attachments can be added and viewed easily and the discussion tends to remain focused.
They can also be searched far more easily. Hopefully far fewer 1940s machine shop reminiscences and brownie recipes too.

As regards forums and mailing lists echoing each other, I completely disagree.

The google groups model which does this, has led to a complete mess of the MK forum, where no-one uses it and it just grows without any structure from the plethora of emails.

regards

Well, certainly any communication forum requires moderators.

I don't think I'd cite Google groups as an exemplar of how to handle this sort of thing anyway.. Google has a habit of doing things in the trendiest way instead of the best way.

I certainly remember collaborative development happening about 15 years ago with IRC meetings and mailing lists.. and it works ok up to a point (up to a certain size and level of interaction needed). With as many users as Linuxcnc has I can see it getting out of hand traffic wise fairly rapidly.

I do think it's odd that nothing on this forum emphasizes the existence of the emc-users list, and people seem to use one or the other. There are a lot of people learning here that would be less frustrated if they could read up on things there, and personally I feel it would be helpful if the archive of list messages was easier to access and comment on.

Maybe what's needed is a better way of organizing the archives? Is there any way to read through the old messages that's better than the sourceforge interface?

Maybe what's needed is a better way of organizing the archives? Is there any way to read through the old messages that's better than the sourceforge interface?

Quite honestly I don't bother any more.
There are several static mirrors of the posts which seem to be regularly get trawled by the googlebots and if you are looking for something specific, a normal search will throw up the thread plus any other references.
Several people seems to keep scripts of IRC discussions and these turn up too

As usual however search keywords are vital

I do think it's odd that nothing on this forum emphasizes the existence of the emc-users list, and people seem to use one or the other. There are a lot of people learning here that would be less frustrated if they could read up on things there, and personally I feel it would be helpful if the archive of list messages was easier to access and comment on.

There are some people who prefer the forum format and others who like mailing lists.
I don't see any reason to impose a merger, you can do both if you wish.

Unfortunately what is true of both formats, is that often the people making the query, do not know enough about the problem to be able to effectively search for a solution themselves.
There are effective ways to search the forum and the mailing list, but the same problems in different guises come up time and time again.

A lot of people come from a windoze background (and don't know much about that, except how to use it), attracted by free software and support, plus the possibilities LCNC offers and the learning curve is very steep when clicking on an icon does not work.

vive le difference, I say

regards

I just wanted to say a big thanks to whomever took the time to move the wj200 driver into Master (I'm not near the machine or I'd look and see who made the commit). I'll have a go at configuring it on my mill in the next couple of days and see how it works.

So Thanks!

Erik