John, FYI, I have done a couple of proof of principle touch screen layouts, but that is as far as I got with them. In particular I was looking at using a Lilliput 7" touch screen display (16x9 format), which is a bit different from say a 17"+ 4x3 format display typical of large CNC machines. In my case I wanted a cross platform interface that could be developed in a WYSIWYG environment and utilizing a language with which I had at least some familiarity.
To this point I have not found an environment I am really happy with, which is why, among other reasons, the project is currently in limbo. I tried Java first and ran into some problems with OpenGL (for the backplot), at least the way I wanted to use it in its own panel as is done in "Axis" for example. There were also some aesthetic and performance issues with Java which I wasn't too fond of. I also tried Free Pascal / Lazarus, which worked pretty well on Windows but has some significant stability problems on Linux, or at least on Ubuntu 8.04 Linux. I had to force the install to get past a dependency on what appears to be a non-existent version of one of the packages. That may of course be part of the problem. I posted some questions about this on their forums but never got a satisfactory answer. I also looked into wxWidgets which has some promise, except on the Windows side it looks like it requires a proprietary C++ compiler (i.e. either one from MS or CodeGear - previously Borland). Obviously a total open source solution would be preferred. In all cases I use effectively a headless configuration running over the emcrsh interface, which keeps the version of the UI independent of the rest of EMC. IOW, the UI does not need to be kept in synch with the version of EMC running. However since emcrsh uses a socket interface, the UI can run either locally or remotely. Not that any of that is of any immediate value to you other than to let you know that others have looked into doing layouts for touch screen displays as well. Regards, Eric Your point is well taken, however I do use the MachMotion screen set with Mach3 in my shop currently. It works quite well with a touch screen. I have started using touch screens in my very small shop (10 x 12 building) since I have very limited space for keyboards and mice. I am considering switching to EMC2 (I used to use EMC) but I don't like any of the current user interfaces for use with a touch screen. This is my personal complaint and should in no way be taken to mean that there is something wrong with EMC2 or the current user interfaces. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Stay on top of everything new and different, both inside and around Java (TM) technology - register by April 22, and save $200 on the JavaOne (SM) conference, June 2-5, 2009, San Francisco. 300 plus technical and hands-on sessions. Register today. Use priority code J9JMT32. http://p.sf.net/sfu/p _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
