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I have heard and read that some experienced programmers consider Summary mode to be pretty much useless and that a serious programmer would never use it.
In other words, its a sort of "sissy" mode.
Au contraire mon fraire.
I have been programming with PC-DMIS for about 10 years now.
I learned by doing. There was no one able (or maybe it is more like willing) to teach me.
I was the new guy at the shop where I was working and was supposed to be some kind of hot-shot so the other inspectors were just waiting for me to fall on my face.
I was expected to be the programmer.
Not an operator, THE programmer. Heck, they had version 1.7 or something and virtually no programs anyway. The machine they had was used as a handy granite slab for big part lay-out.
So, it was strictly OJT for me. I had never seen PCD. I had heard that it was the top of the line software, but most of my experience was with manual machines and a year or 2 with MM4 on DCC machines.
I started by convincing management to upgrade the software. So we soon had 3.5. There was no one to tell me that Summary mode was "sissy" mode.
After a few months in came 3.6 and that was what I was trying to learn on.
I was convinced that I was a useless monkey when it came to this software because it crashed on me several times an hour.
After a few calls to support at B&S the word came out that I should revert back to 3.5 and use the 3.6 discs for skeet practice.
Now about Summary mode:
It gives you a tree of features and commands with virtually no details. You can't see nominals, tolerances, actuals, vectors... really, not much of anything except a list of features, commands and settings.
How can that be useful?
Well PC-DMIS does not require that you create any real code. Everything is canned, if you will. You punch an icon in a toolbar and PC-DMIS puts in the code for you.
I stay in Summary mode about 90% of the time. I don't need to see the code most of the time. I know that its there and what it is doing. Why look at it?
If I need to modify the code to do something that the canned operations will not do for me, I can switch to Command mode with a mouse click.
I can also expand any feature or setting or command in the Summary tree anytime I want if I want to see what is in there.
I can see about 5X more program in Summary mode than I can in Command mode.
To the folks that want to stay in Command mode all of the time: Do you also want to fill out an inspection report on a 4-part form with carbon paper on an old Underwood typewriter?
Remember completing a 30-page AS9102 with black ink?
You want to create errors?, Crashes?
Keep the program is Command mode and let a novice at your keyboard.
Its much harder to f things up from Summary mode. You hafta kinda work at it.
I have some other reasons why I like Summary mode over Command mode, but I will leave off for a while and let the flames begin.
In other words, its a sort of "sissy" mode.
Au contraire mon fraire.
I have been programming with PC-DMIS for about 10 years now.
I learned by doing. There was no one able (or maybe it is more like willing) to teach me.
I was the new guy at the shop where I was working and was supposed to be some kind of hot-shot so the other inspectors were just waiting for me to fall on my face.
I was expected to be the programmer.
Not an operator, THE programmer. Heck, they had version 1.7 or something and virtually no programs anyway. The machine they had was used as a handy granite slab for big part lay-out.
So, it was strictly OJT for me. I had never seen PCD. I had heard that it was the top of the line software, but most of my experience was with manual machines and a year or 2 with MM4 on DCC machines.
I started by convincing management to upgrade the software. So we soon had 3.5. There was no one to tell me that Summary mode was "sissy" mode.
After a few months in came 3.6 and that was what I was trying to learn on.
I was convinced that I was a useless monkey when it came to this software because it crashed on me several times an hour.
After a few calls to support at B&S the word came out that I should revert back to 3.5 and use the 3.6 discs for skeet practice.
Now about Summary mode:
It gives you a tree of features and commands with virtually no details. You can't see nominals, tolerances, actuals, vectors... really, not much of anything except a list of features, commands and settings.
How can that be useful?
Well PC-DMIS does not require that you create any real code. Everything is canned, if you will. You punch an icon in a toolbar and PC-DMIS puts in the code for you.
I stay in Summary mode about 90% of the time. I don't need to see the code most of the time. I know that its there and what it is doing. Why look at it?
If I need to modify the code to do something that the canned operations will not do for me, I can switch to Command mode with a mouse click.
I can also expand any feature or setting or command in the Summary tree anytime I want if I want to see what is in there.
I can see about 5X more program in Summary mode than I can in Command mode.
To the folks that want to stay in Command mode all of the time: Do you also want to fill out an inspection report on a 4-part form with carbon paper on an old Underwood typewriter?
Remember completing a 30-page AS9102 with black ink?
You want to create errors?, Crashes?
Keep the program is Command mode and let a novice at your keyboard.
Its much harder to f things up from Summary mode. You hafta kinda work at it.
I have some other reasons why I like Summary mode over Command mode, but I will leave off for a while and let the flames begin.
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