Messages

2171

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 05:53:19 PM »

Hi,

Like many others I am sure... I am not a programmer and you have to be a programmer to make it work.

Remember I cautioned you that learning Mach/Lua was quite a challenge and that there are procedures that do not require much,
if any, Lua coding and that I commended them to you to save the grief you are now experiencing.

They will get my $200 when it works.....so, I guess they will be waiting awhile.....

It works....whether you believe it or not.

Craig

2172

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 05:48:17 PM »

Hi,

Based on that second video, should I be putting this at the beginning of everything I work on?

That depends on the macro or code that you are working on.

For instance if you have a macro running in the debugger, that macro alone is the 'Lua Chunk', other Lua code in other
scripts or macros are unavailble to it. Thus if you call say mcState, a global variable, in your macro the your debug session will
fail because the debugger is running your macro alone as its entire Lua chunk.

If you require the wider context of the entire Lua chunk then yes you are correct to use the dofile() command.
Be aware now that when you single step through the code you will now have to single step through the wider code
chunk, thousands of lines.

For this reason you may well need to define certain variables or functions within your macro just for debug purposes
so you don't have to debug the entire Lua chunk.

Craig

2173

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 05:37:45 PM »

Hi,

It has the info you need, just not the exact syntax to know how to use it. I am sure this is clear to people that already know...but tough for a new person that is not a programmer.

Tough luck.....this has afflicted all of us, I was not a Lua programmer when I started either.....and by most measures still not!
Mach4, with its modular structure and Lua scripting language offers a great deal more flexibilty and performance over Mach3 but
it comes at a cost, namely learning curve.

Second issue that you are observing is that the documentation of Mach4 often lags its current state. NFS is a very small company that does not
have the resources to employ a document writer and consequently the documentation has fallen behind. Before you jump up and down just,
weigh the fact that NFS is still releasing new functionality, including script based THC, mcSurface Wizard, Zero Brane editor and mcTouch Off wizard
in the last 12 months alone, verses up-to-date documentation......NFS doesn't have the resources to do both WITHOUT charging a lot more for its
software or some sort of annual subscription.

Craig

2174

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 04:55:35 PM »

Hi,
there are:

https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=37369.0
https://www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php?topic=37783.0

Craig

2175

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: No Pings from my Smoothstepper.

« on: August 04, 2019, 03:02:15 PM »

Hi,
someone once described......'once you have your computer hooked to and controlling a machine it is a MACHIINE CONTROLLER....
no longer a PC.......its a machine controller that happens to use Windows as an operating system'.

Craig

2176

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 02:58:51 PM »

Hi,

If you start the debugger (green arrow) then it ends up putting a green arrow next to the first line that is not a comment. Nothing in there has a value.

The green arrow shows that this is the next instruction to be executed, it has not been executed yet and so the variable may well
be undefined. What you need to do is single-step through the code, that is DON'T push the green arrow again but F11.
Once the line has been executed then hover on the variable.

Craig

2177

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 02:24:54 PM »

Hi,
you only get live data when you are in a de-bug session.....you do have the debugger running when trying
to get live values?

Craig

2178

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 02:11:58 PM »

Hi,
you will get a value once the line has been executed.....until it has the variable is undefined.

Craig

2179

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: No Pings from my Smoothstepper.

« on: August 04, 2019, 02:09:32 PM »

Hi,
sounds like your PC has not correctly installed the new card. This is a Windows problem not Mach or ESS.

Got to Control Panel/Network and Sharing and establish whether Windows has recognized and installed the new card.
You realize of course that it is not recommended that your PC be connected to the internet or in fact any network
AND the ESS.

Craig

2180

Mach4 General Discussion / Re: How to show the value of a variable in the ZeroBrane Editor?

« on: August 04, 2019, 01:55:45 PM »

Hi,
hovering over the variable works......if it shows nil then the variable has no defined value.

Craig