[Elecraft] [K3] Firware utilities for Linux / MacOS.

[Jessie Oberreuter]

      This does beg a related question or two from me :).

      Any chance of some kind of simple, raw, open-source command line 
firmware loader?  I do understand that many shops use licensed boot 
firmware for in-device programming (which would be a problem) and that 
having complete control over the loading process simplifies support, so if 
we're just SOL on this, I understand, but read on.
      I access all of my serial devices via a serial-to-ethernet bridge (a 
terminal server), and have no Windows machines.  I haven't yet tried 
tricking the Linux K3 Utility into thinking the tcp socket to the radio is 
really a serial port, but with a little luck it will work.  Meanwhile, not 
all of my machines have the necessary libraries to run k3util, nor do they 
always support a graphical display.

      The point of this message is not to ask for more features or support, 
but instead to point out a different philosophy of use.  Most computer 
hardware companies ship some sort of basic Windows GUI app for 
configuration and tweaking.  If they are generous enough to support other 
platforms (Thanks Elecraft!), they usually simply port that app to the 
other platforms. For maybe 90% of the folks out there, this is fine.  How 
often do you really crack open the control panel for your fancy mouse? But 
like folks who buy kit radios and then proceed to build something slightly 
different with the parts, a great many folks in the Linux world are there 
because they want to do things a bit differently.
      One of the easiest ways to support this (and to actually save 
yourselves a lot of work :), is to provide interfaces instead of 
applications.  Look at the number of Linux applications that are really 
just a GUI on top of a suite of command line tools, and you'll see what I 
mean.  Had the Linux loader shipped as a command line utility, most Linux 
users would have had no trouble using it, and within two weeks, someone in 
the community would have made a Perl, or Tcl, or Python, or whatever GUI 
wrapper for it.  Had it shipped as a command line utility with source 
code, the whole suite would probably now be available for practically 
every unix platform in the world, including Mac.
      The Unix world is all about creating custom tools by layering 
together simple components.  It's a different philosophy from the Windows 
world, and a source of great flexibility and strength.  Open source takes 
this even further: so long as we have /something/ that works, if it gets 
used, it will be improved, complaints will tend to go to the package 
maintainers rather than to the hardware companies, and kudos will go to 
the fine people who opened the interfaces in the first place :).
      Maybe I'm too close to the machine, but it feels like a win-win 
situation to me.  Maintaining a monolithic GUI app across three platforms, 
OTOH, feels like an exercise in torture :).



On Wed, 7 Oct 2009, Radio Amateur N5GE wrote:

> On Tue, 06 Oct 2009 20:59:08 -0700, "Leigh L. Klotz, Jr WA5ZNU"
> <Leigh at WA5ZNU.org> wrote:
> 
>> Could we get an estimate on when the non-Windows platform K3 Utilities
>> 1.2.9.30 will be ready?  The K3_software page is a bit stale on this topic.
>> 
>> I need to decide whether to go get a Windows laptop set up to run the RF
>> gain calibration, and I'm sure others would like to know as well.  (It's
>> obviously not an impossible task, but not one I'd like to undertake
>> needlessly if the release is imminent.)
>> 
>> Leigh/WA5ZNU
> [snip]
> 
> You're experiencing why I stopped using Apple Computers and developing
> software for them in 1985.
> 
> They are good computers but Apple does not make it easy for developers
> to create software for their computers (very expensive development
> tools).  That caused x86 and x64 based computer sales overwhelmed
> Apple sales as time went by.
> 
> My opinion.  I could be wrong.
> 
> Tom, N5GE
> 
> n5ge at n5ge.com
> K3 #806, K3 #1055, PR6,
> XV144, XV432, KRC2,
> W1 and other small kits.
> 
> 2 W2's on order
> 1 K144XV on order
> 
> http://www.n5ge.com
> http://www.swotrc.net
> 
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