Hi,
So Mach 4 was the direct result of us listening to what our users wanted! But now they don't want it? Thus my confused state of mind.
Ii used to be, or I used to think, that hobbyist had simple machines to do simple things. 3 axis mill without a tool changer, for example. But no. Just take a look at the feature request thread!!!! 90% of that thread is people wanting Mach 4 to do something special. But also, 90% of that can be accomplished with using the tools that are already provided with Mach 4!
I completely agree with Steve: mach4 is feature-rich and powerful enuf to drive any hobby machine.
... and I agree on him too, that the one who makes money with his cnc is no more a hobby user.
For me, m4 is well suited to drive any special machine beyond hobby interests too.
... and I don't have any problem in having to learn m4 programming and a new programming language to solve special needs.
Even more - I don't care, if api or fileformat changes - as long as there exist an upgrade path, with reasonable costs and instructions on how to reach current api level.
What I miss most is communication from artsoft to hobby-users. Let me tell, what I thought during last year:
This time last year I was convinced, that m4 will be my way. But then I became unsure, as I didn't see any reaction on bug reports. I followed the updates, but could not see any issue solved.
Then from august until january this year there was no update - and I thought: well, they might be working on other products or for industrial customers ...
When the last update came out, it was clear: there has been folks working on m4. Nearly 200 commits is a bunch of changes.
But where can I read what has been done?
The installation does not contain any information about that.
So from my point of view, best way to bring hobby-users back to artsoft and document the commitment of artsoft to hobby-users would be in establishing a ticket system public-readable like this forum. This way, hobbyists can enter wishes and bug-report and developers can answer by setting issue-priority (like "we're working on it" or "closed. Not our business").
Hobbists that can search the tickets and see, what happened to reported bugs (resolved with build ####, need more information).
I think, that will create transparency and feedback with little cost to developers and it could be a way, to receive user-submissions like translated files or the like.
The ticket system will allow to create some statistics and history without the need to have a developer write a novel.
I think, a ticket system will create communication from artsoft to hobby-users at little to no extra costs for the developers.
Reinhard