In the mid 2010's I seriously started thinking about designing and building a new computer hardware platform as an alternative to the PC (IBM and Mac included) as well as programmable lighting for use with compositing live action green screen video with computer animated graphics. I wanted to be able to mass produce plastic parts and even make custom metal parts. But plastic injection molds are expensive, so I decided that I needed to make my own molds. That meant I needed to get into machine tools. So I forked out the cash for a Sherline Mill and Lathe. No way was I going to get into manual machine tools. They had to be computer controlled or I was not going to be able to automate manufacturing. So I put together an inexpensive control system based on the Arduino and some free firmware called GRBL. It worked out really well. The GRBL controller only turns individual movement paths into stepper motor sequences. It takes many of these to do a whole machining job. I didn't like the CAD work flow in that you designed the whole 3D object and had to throw the whole sequence at the controller with what is called a G-Code sender. Just the sender alone doesn't tell you where you are in the sequence without some sophisticated 3D monitoring software. Instead, I wanted something more like a spreadsheet like control program within which you could write and test your machine's movements. So I wrote my own and I call it JMP which stands for Jerbil Machine Programmer. To this very date, I have been using a program based on a pretty old environment using Watcom's C compiler that I have been using since around 2010 or soon after. Both the SW tools and the targets produced by it run in 32-bit mode. Now I have decided that I am going to purchase a more robust mill from Taig Tools in Arizona. I am now planning to write this newest version of JMP in Pelles C. I will keep you posted on my progress. I just created the project in Pelles C this morning.
Here is a picture of two plastic parts that I made from a mold created using JMP and a CNC mini mill. They are called OptiBurger Patty Molds. I used JMP to make aluminum molds for making plastic molds for making hamburger patties. They are made of polyethylene. One is for round patties and the other is for square-ish patties. I have made hundreds of hamburger patties from just two of these forms.
(https://www.technoventure.com/OptiBurger/BothMoldsQ.png)
The adventure will continue with the new Pelles C version of JMP!
A good thing, that you see Pelles c useful for you.
A Watcom compiler project halted, as it lost all developers some time ago.
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The Open Watcom v2 Fork project is active. Today \ 1 August 2026 , they released new packages :
https://github.com/open-watcom/open-watcom-v2/releases/tag/Current-build