IBM 5150 PC loading game from cassette tape

[potatohead]

On 11/7/2020 at 6:19 AM, wierd_w said:

well designed macro library with calls (which you CAN do in gcode) would shrink the total gcode size tremendously. 

Absolutely!

 

With CNC turret punch machines, many of them but maybe not all, the macro and advanced feature pattern commands were powerful and lean.  Hand optimized programs were sometimes a 10th of their original size!  Smaller sometimes.  I compared doing that to assembly language.  

 

Edit:  punch had a big ROM.  Only held a statement or two in RAM.

 

Very enjoyable.   I did quite a few once the company saw the outcome.  Some of those machines ran right from the tape too.  No internal memory.  Optimized gcode brought them right up to speed with the more advanced ones with ample program space.

 

In the case of that laser machine, the software broke curves into line segments even though it too had a full complement of built in macros and capabilities to make others. 

 

Very annoying.  You are right though.  I probably could have crunched it all down to 20K or something.  But, was a one time, and I was making a point.

 

Would have been brutal work though.  Modern software is often not much better!  Sadly, almost no one cares.  Was nice to read of another person who does.

.

For anyone running older gear, those capabilities would still pay right off.

Edited November 14, 2020 by potatohead

[wierd_w]

In my case, it was mostly programming Makino 4-axis trunions, and a few leadwell 3-axis mills.

 

Been a long time since I have done it though.  I have a 3D printer, and it does G-code, but I have not tried to manually get it to get up and dance.  It might be fun to do it some day, but I have not had the motivation.