Welcome to the Machine

[ArtF]

 This is a board for discussio ns related to scripting in C , generally in MonkeySci pt as thats what we use in
Auggie. I will be doing a series of videos to show basic scripting and to help teach anyone who wishes
to learn the art of scripting .

   Coding is getting important in most peoples lives, up here in Canada, they have even started teaching codeing
in Grade 3. This underscor es how usefull it can be to know how to code. Scripting can help in spreadshe ets, CAD,
or just in general applicati ons that allow interfaci ng. Once you know how to script in near any language, you find
your adaptable to any other scripting language with a bit of work.

    Game Monkey Script, which will be my focus of course, is very C-Like, so its usefull in many applicati ons.
Should anyone have questions on scripting, no matter how basic, plase ask them here, if its a difficult to
explain topic, Ill add a video on it. If you can script, youll be able to run Auggie in vastly more powerfull
ways than you can imagine. Auggie truly becomes a "Roll your own controlle r" if you know the arcane
magic of scripting . Its truly a very easy thing to learn for the most part, and I dont mind helping from the
guy who doesnt know what a variable is, to the person who wants to use this pointers to redirect
blocked signals.

   So if you'd like to learn scripting, or know already but would like to help others learn it, drop by here
occasiona lly and drop wisdom, or withdraw knowledge, as is your wont.

 This board will stand as an archive of scripting tips, hints, help and tutorials .


Art

[GlennD]

Here is a Gamemonke y reference PDF i found online.
Hopefully helpful to others.
Happy new year
Glenn

[Mooselake]

Thanks, Glenn!

Interesti ngly, there's no mention of switch in the language descripti on, but it's used in an example.  Wonder what other goodies they aren't talking about?

Kirk

[GlennD]

Kirk
Same thought here.
I am glad that Art started this thread, since I can write code and have done C but not very good at it.
Spend most of my time in VB.Net.
A lot of the finer points I don't really get with C\C++.
Thank goodness for Art, YNN, you and google.

I have about 5 more functions for the Tabbed box to convert then test and hopefully have a panel that I can share after that.
Started back to work so will go slower from here on out.

Glenn

[Nate]

Based on the reference, MonkeyScr ipt is more like Javascrip t than like C.  (Though that's probably a good thing.)

[ArtF]

Hi:

I find monkey to be closer to raw C than anything else, but I haven't programme d much in Java. In 41 years of
programmi ng Ive lost count of the number of languages Ive used, but Monkey is about as easy as it gets. Its autotypin g
and ability to retype on the fly is powerful, though of course any language has its limits and Monkey definitel y has limits,
the question is, what are they?
 
  I do not in any way pretend to be an expert on Monkey script or really any scripting in particula r, but as Ive modified
Monkey to suit Auggie, and added rudimenta ry preemptiv e abilities to it, Ive come to understan d a lot of its internals .
Ive bound numerous functions to it, and in the next release many changes have been made and parallel threading is now
possible as well. This means as a line of Gcode, a parallel thread ( or several) may be started to run while the gcode
completes . This allows the scripter the power to monitor any condition and change the way the GCode or the hardware
itself reacts to incoming condition s. 

          Most controlle rs either have a function, or they don't, or you try to talk the developer,
( me, once upon a time) into adding it. The main thrust behind Auggie is to invent a system where the users are free to
add pretty much any function they wish, from THC type of functions perhaps to ms by ms variation of output signals during
runtime. I have no idea if a "roll your own" controlle r is actually possible, but all my tests to date seem to indicate it is,
or may be, now that computers are as good as they are. (Master5 , Mach3's original title, was 16 years ago).
   So while I make myself a laser unit, Ill see just how versatile a program would have to be to allow a designer, perhaps with
assistanc e from this area, to make a machine to do "X", where "X" is something totally foreign to me. I will consider
this project a success when someone presents a user screen run machine that does something I totally did not anticipat e.
Cake decorator perhaps.. oops, too late, I anticipat e it..

   We'll talk about that more as I get more libraries out and begin to show how to use the system. I suspect its really for the
brave and the stupid at this point, but I said that many times over the years and always had many other nuts join
me for the exercise. I guess all I can say at this point, is Im having more fun with Auggie than Ive had in awhile,
its a very interesti ng way to design a machine, totally backwards to Mach3, hope it all works out :-)

  Thanks Glen for the docs, I will include them in future versions of the installer as well, their a great start to using the scripter,
if anyone has questions on whats there, drop them here and we'll attempt to answer them. Ill be doing a final overview video
next on how scripting works in the system , how its attached and what the flow of operation s is really like internall y. It
may help people understan d how the scripting will control things. 

Art

[Ken_Shea]

This should be very helpful.
Where and how to just getting started is often the biggest hurdle.