I was thinking about how many feature requests crop up again and again, and how it seems like the software development team doesn’t have time to get to them. And then I was thinking “I wish I could help somehow”. And then, !
The GFUI should officially support plugins or add-ons, so that third parties can add features and extend the functionality. Imagine if it had an API for plugging in new JavaScript. Numeric positioning would be done. Easily toggling operations would be done. Saving state would be done. Adding primitive shapes would be done. And so on, and so on.
Frankly, if it takes completely rewriting the app to make this possible, I think it would be a better investment than continuing in the current direction. Let us help you help us help you. I would dedicate a significant portion of my precious free time to working on plugins. It would be a great way to give back.
Or simply make it open source. Much easier than designing and documenting a plug in architecture. If the reason software development is at a snail’s pace is because they can’t recruit enough of the right people open source would be the obvious solution.
I think what will happen is people that want numerical units, kerf compensation, saved state, etc will move onto @scott.wiederhold’s opensource project and use GRBL and LaserWeb and be free from the cloud. People that don’t like numbers and installing software will stick with GF’s flaky cloud solution.
Well (tongue in cheek), if their cloud software is anything like their device firmware, most of it already is open source - just not publicly released.
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