Hello, I say start small w/ the site. Add a few hyperlinks to start. Make something official geared towards people like me who are newcomers and willing to spend time dedicated to application. I am a starter in this field but I am getting older and older.
... Small site and a full representation of a working order would be nice for people staring blindly at the famous pages that seem to multiply quickly when viewing. I posted a small section from github in the form of a hyperlink. It basically just goes to an incomplete but dedicated piece of text on github that supports machinekit ideas w/ gcode, .ini files, and basics on ideas for setting up commands. I think this is a good starter for people. I am sure that most of you are very educated in this dept. and do not need to bother w/ newcomers and nonsensical questions. I understand. I have been behind the helm asking silly questions for five years in the BBB.io world. The books were nice at first, the starter scripts were nice too, and in the end, it seems that people stopped their futuristic approach to the entire community of newcomers, their ideas, and bringing old to new. There is no pressure from me. I can learn from the machinekit.io site like I have been doing. But after a bit of spending time on the site, it is an actually large database. It is easy to use and dedicated to instruction. This is nice. I say keep it or are you guys going to rearrange things a bit? I ask b/c some of the ideas are not BBB.io related. I am not affiliated w/ the beagleboard.org people but I enjoy using their boards for learning Linux based initiatives. I just like motor work, the use of motors, and to mfg. new machines when I can to promote the ideas behind it all. Finding open minds is not easy. People would rather pay for a Arduino w/ a cheap daughter card so that they can put GRBL or Marlin on it. Machinekit is not the same and is highly configurable. This is what I think is nice about the entire set up you guys have in the CNC world. But, like my old posts in the field, I say a Cape for the BBB or BBAI would be neat. Well, it is late and I have not tested much recently. I just got trying to handle interrupts on some Python3 source via the Motor Bridge Cape, the BBGG, and some other source. Testing will ensue! Seth P.S. Nothing is final. Things evolve, people take specific routes, and stuff stays the same. MachineKit! On Monday, November 30, 2020 at 12:54:09 PM UTC-6 ce...@tuta.io wrote: > The was discussion about this problem in the Machinekit chat room. The > truth is that the community support in Machinekit is and was not good > (being tactful) and with changes in development it only got worse. > > The documentation is bad and obsolete, the site itself is pretty chaotic > and finding information is almost Sisyphean task. Everybody recognises this. > > The changes happening in development on Github were not manually > propagated here to Google groups. Moreover, the links at top are again long > obsolete in its step-by-step tutorial value (but the overall explanation > and goals are still more or less valid). This is a lot more murky than to > say "The site needs replacement" - because Machinekit always recognised the > need for the user to be proactive and keep a finger on the pulse of > development (and encouraged to do some development themselves). No version > of Machinekit (meaning Machinekit organization's project here and in whole > text) is production ready in the sense of guaranteeing stable version and > high level of support. With the understanding that if somebody wants to or > need to, he should produce his own stable branch (with implementing > upstream changes as he sees fit). That was the status quo for companies > using Machinekit in their commercial offerings. > > However, the community forum is good for something like user issue > sharing, basic supporting questions and proud presentations of own use of > Machinekit. Just people should not forget that there is also the Github > issue tracker specific to each project used for developer talk (which does > not mean that only developers or contributors can comment on presented > issues). > > This out of the way, let's talk about how to reinvigorate the Machinekit > community (because otherwise all this is useless). The website with > repository README page are first point of contacts with new users. Usually > what I need to know about new OSS is WHAT is it, WHY does it exist, HOW can > I use it and WHEN should I use it. > > Current status of Machinekit site did not change much from the time > Machinekit was forked. It is Jekyll based site with own theme build from > Machinekit-docs repository with use of Github Actions service and deployed > to Machinekit.github.io repository as Github Pages. I think this is a > nice setup. (Not the Jekyll part, I don't care if Hugo, Gridsome, > Docusaurus or whatever else is used, but the fact that it is basically > static site which can be hosted pretty much anywhere and quickly replicated > in case of problem by anybody.) The build is based on a very precarious > Docker image (which is based on Debian Jessie and cannot be rebuilt > anymore). And some parts are broken and no longer building. In other word, > bad. > > So, the path with the least resistance as far as I can see it is to choose > some simple theme with documentation support, change colours to ochre and > teal, put logo at top and write some basic documentation answering the > above presented question. While letting the current site live somewhere > online for users interested in archaeology to study. Problem is, it is > still going to require many man-hours to accomplish, but it is needed for > survival. > > The other point is this forum. To tell the truth, I hate mail lists. But > many people love them. Removing the obsolete links is connected to the > website. But maybe the community would be better server with modern > interface with common functions known from other places like mentions, > responsive design for reading on mobile devices (not nice with current > setup), SSO. Tools like Discourse, nodeBB or Flarum are able to somewhat > function over emails with Discourse being the most advanced in this regard. > > So the importation of messages from this group would be possible and > hosting it on 1 GB small server should be enough for the size of this > community. The questing stays if it was a positive move for the community > and not just task for the task itself. > > Comments welcome. > > Cern. (alias @cerna on Github) > > Dne středa 25. listopadu 2020 v 20:46:14 UTC+1 uživatel sliptonic napsal: > >> I'm speaking out of frustration, disappointment, and a touch of anger. >> You've been warned. >> >> I had such high hopes for this project. I've been using >> linuxcnc/machinekit for 13 years. Like most people, I have a love-hate >> relationship with it. So much promise and so much frustration all >> together. When the fork happened, I was one who was cheering. Forks used >> to be a bad thing but git changed that. Forks mean new ideas can be tested >> without disturbing the mainline. "Finally", I thought, "New approaches >> and solutions. Hope". >> >> Ha! What a joke. This project has been a let down. >> >> The technical side has been great. Really some amazing ideas and >> progress. >> The individual people are some of the nicest around. Helpful, hopeful, >> and smart. >> >> But the project? Absolute disaster. Every attempt at helpful feedback >> has been met with words and no action. The C4 concept might work in other >> projects but has produced no fruit here at all. Worse, it's prevented >> normal participation by increasing the friction. >> >> Documentation is almost non-existent. Where it exists, it's often >> contradictory or just wrong. There are no reference projects and hardly any >> videos. The newsgroup is almost silent and the gitter channel/matrix room >> are ghost towns where nobody answers. >> >> The project started with a high value for using git (remember that fork >> thing?). Today neither the machinekit-hal or machinekit-cnc repos have any >> branches or tags besides master. Seriously, HOW THE HELL do I find the >> last known working code!? >> >> It looks like someone started a major development effort, broke things, >> and then walked away and I can't find any discussion about that >> initiative. Why is it so hard to understand what the hell is going on? >> >> Look, if the project is dead, say that. Lead it out to the pasture and >> put a bullet in its head and let's get back to making LinuxCNC better. >> >> If core contributors don't have time right now to continue working, can >> we please take the time to mothball the thing properly? >> >> But if somebody thinks there's still value here (and I seriously hope you >> do) then for the love of God can we please do this right? Can we document >> what works, consolidate our communication, and lower the barriers to >> contribution? >> >> Does anyone still care? >> >> Ok, I feel better now. >> >> >> -- website: http://www.machinekit.io blog: http://blog.machinekit.io github: https://github.com/machinekit --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Machinekit" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to machinekit+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. 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