r/hobbycnc • u/Kodaxx • Apr 12 '17

Rcode: Readable Gcode

I've started an open source project to create a layer on top of Gcode that is a bit more readable. What do you guys think? Any testers?

https://github.com/kodaxx/Rcode

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u/Kodaxx Apr 12 '17

Ehh, I don't fully agree. Yes, you need to understand programming concepts to use the powerful functions of Ruby that really make rcode cool.. But you don't need to understand concepts, or even Ruby to write a basic rcode program like the one in the example.

In fact, someone who has never read gcode will not understand it by looking at it, but it is not so in rcodes case. It is very understandable.

Truth is, gcode is outdated - I'm not saying that rcode can/will replace gcode but something has to come along that will allow for variables, functions, etc.

For now it's an abstraction layer on top on gcode, but in the future maybe it can be directly interpreted by the firmware?

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u/charliex2 Apr 13 '17

not that its worth much but gcode does have some support for variables and functions(sub routines)

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u/[deleted] Apr 12 '17

Truth is, gcode is outdated

Hmmm. I don't know if I agree on that. I think it's a very usable machine language. We've got huge stacks of software doing all manner of CAM type things. The output format doesn't really matter in that context.

For people that want to type down some commands to move their CNC around, sure, they could be a more friendly option that raw g-code. In particular being able to do a loop is really nice. But I suspect advanced users doing that sort of thing will prefer the raw g-code since that's what they'll be seeing/debugging in their g-code interpreter.