Use of open source distribution for a machine tool controller
William P. Shackleford, Frederick M. Proctor · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2001
In recent years a growing number of government and university las, non-profit organizations and even a few for- profit corporations have found that making their source code public is good for both developers and users. In machine tool control, a growing number of users are demanding that the controllers they buy be `open architecture,' which would allow third parties and end-users at least limited ability to modify, extend or replace the components of that controller. This paper examines the advantages and dangers of going one step further, and providing `open source' controllers by relating the experiences of users and developers of the Enhanced Machine Controller. We also examine some implications for the development of standards for open-architecture but closed-source controllers. Some of the questions we hope to answer include: How can the quality be maintained after the source code has been modified? Can the code be trusted to run on expensive machines and parts, or when the safety of the operator is an issue? Can `open- architecture' but closed-source controllers ever achieve the level of flexibility or extensibility that open-source controllers can?