[Elecraft] Elecraft Utilities

[Don Wilhelm]

To ask Elecraft to provide Utilities for any and all small operating 
systems is unreasonable IMHO.  The mainstream OS of Windows, Mac and 
Linux *are* supported, but recently there have been a number of OS 
variants that have appeared on the horizon (and there are likely to be 
more to come) and that includes the Rasberry Pi, and several other 
'computers' that have recently appeared on the hobbyist market.

Just because the most recent device can do RS-232 (or USB) 
communications does not mean it should be individually supported by 
hardware manufacturers.  It would be more productive to encourage those 
writing software for those devices to request that they emulate Windows, 
or Mac, or Linux in all aspects so one could use the applications 
written for those mainstream OS versions to run without problems on 
whichever platform those "hobby" devices may be using.

If the Rasberry Pi OS becomes stable over time, and is in use for a 
significant percentage of the Elecraft community, then it may eventually 
be supported on its own,  but for the time being, as I understand the 
Raspberry Pi, its OS is a version of Linux, but not everything works 
like the main Linux platform -- so until you can convince the Raspberry 
Pi developers to create a version of its OS that is compatible in all 
respects to Linux, you will not have success.  The market penetration 
for Raspberry Pi is just not great enough at this time for manufacturers 
to create software that will run on it.  Much to the dismay of those who 
have Raspberry Pi running and controlling their ham stations.

73,
Don W3FPR


On 4/8/2016 4:57 PM, Tim Henrion wrote:
> People building their own firmware loaders is a really bad idea if one possible outcomes is brick’d radios. Consider the potential support costs of these types of things. Java is not the answer. It is too dependent on the quality/buginess of VMs on less mainstream platforms.
>
> I’m a Mac guy and I can’t tell you how many pieces of embedded hardware I own whose updaters only run on Windows. There’s a real easy solution. Get a cheap Windows machine, run the software under VMware or Wine or whatever you need to get the job done. The LAST thing I’d want to see is Elecraft wasting valuable development time on stuff other than designing/building radios. Multiplatform software, unless its the primary business you’re in, is a sinkhole waiting to happen from a development and especially support perspective.
>
>