LinuxCNC wizard needed for a not so typical machine program/UI

Yeah I think this guy can program anything. I initially asked him to write the HAL file because I couldn't wrap my head around it and he said he'd just write a component. I was a bit skeptical while I was waiting and figured out HAL a bit so I was able to write a working file based on suggestions by PCW. It wound up being pretty convoluted with a bunch of components to convert values and invert pins. When he had the component ready it was s much simpler C file.

blazini36 wrote:

Unfortunately the whole thing was designed with somewhat of a commercial interest in mind, so distributing it is probably not in my best interest.

If you fully adopt the open source model, you should be happy to share as without open source, you would not have a product. If you had custom components to match custom hardware, then I don't see that you would need to share those parts.

If you fully adopt the open source model, you should be happy to share as without open source, you would not have a product. If you had custom components to match custom hardware, then I don't see that you would need to share those parts.

I'm not a programmer, but I do know that most people confuse "open source" to mean "free software". Neither of which require a program to be distributed in any form. Those 2 terms and the licenses behind them dictate what happens when it is distributed. Otherwise everyone in this forum would be required or at least morally obligated to distribute the python code and HAL files for whatever machine they put together. There's no components that are specific to any hardware, the whole program is specific to this machines purpose which AFAIC is more proprietary than any hardware. I've used Linux, or more appropriately the Linux Kernel/GNU Operating system/ Debian derivative distribution on every computer I've built since 2000 so I get it, but lets not forget this post was intended to find somebody I could pay to program this for me. That doesn't make me special, anyone can do that. Any machine in industry with a little touchscreen mounted to it running an ARM processor is probably guilty of whatever distribution hording I am.

Now if I was still dead in the water on this what Norbert suggested would be something to think about. Unfortunately I don't see that going anywhere since A) I would not have had any good code to contribute to my own endeavor, and B, I doubt anyone would waste time on programming special functions for a machine they would probably never see in the wild. If I made a 3D printer or CNC mill for myself I'd be happy to post the entire program as it's something you could personally use in your basement. This thing would never see the light of day in any building that's sole purpose is not to make money in a specific industry. In that respect it is the equivalent of "open source" since A) It is "open source" (but not freely distributed), and it's designed as a cheaper alternative to really expensive stuff.

That said, If Norbert or anyone else asked for something very specific and made a promise that they would in some way alter the code and release it under the GNU I may at some point oblige. Regardless of how this post comes across I think everyone feels a duty toward "the community" especially since when I was trying to do this myself I started with Norbert's Camview work. I also have a HAL component that controls outputs based on index vs encoder counts That at some point I may actually just put out there as is as it could be useful to someone not looking to make money. At this point I'm still trying new things and the code is not clean of old code or properly organized so I would not just throw it out there and bite myself with it.