On Tue, 2026-02-17 at 08:46 -0800, Jordan Brown wrote:

OK. What I tried was this:

I did not have a local copy of function.json in .config, so I copied
the one that was supplied with my Appimage.

I then edited the local copy, changing both 'x' to 'y'.

Loaded OpenSCAD, an opened the function template.

The 'y' characters were there in place of the 'x' ones, so I knew I was
getting the local copy.

I then edited function.json to look like this:

{
"key" : "function",
"content" : "difference() {\n  sphere(30);\n  cube(10);\n
}

That didn't work, and it's a little embarrassing becase I realized that
I had left off the }" from the end.

So I corrected it in spherediff.json and it now works!

Sorry about that.

Larry

On 2/17/2026 9:49 AM, larry via Discuss wrote:

Great!

It's pretty clear that the template mechanism is a stumbling block.  It
would be good to have a built-in template editor, so that users don't
have to muck with the JSON files.  The problem is in finding somebody
with the right development skills to create that feature, who is also
interested enough to spend a couple of days of their free time to create it.

On Tue, 2026-02-17 at 10:29 -0800, Jordan Brown wrote:

I've CC'd this to Ken.

I have found a fairly easy way to do what ken wants.

I stuggled for quite a while trying to write a Rexx script to do the
job of converting an OpenSCAD snippet, but I finally gave up.

I normally don't like to use AI, but in my testing of various LLMs, my
only real successes have been to ask for code. One was for anArduino
program I had already written, and CHatGPT (free version) wrote it with
a library I had been unaware of, but it did the exact sams thing as
mine.

The other was a program to view a Tapo C110 camera on my desktop
computer, and I was quite surprised that it got it right.

I finally used Claude, asking it to create a json file from an OpenSCAD
example file. The first result did not work. It did not look at all
like the format of my 'spheredfiff.json' file, so I asked it to write
it to look like that, and it worked!

Here's the snippet I uses as input:
include<BOSL2/std.scad>
size = 20;
$fa=1;$fs=.3;
diff()
cuboid(size)
attach(TOP,TOP,inside=true)
cyl(h=size,d=4,rounding=-2,extra=1);  // extra adds length to
avoid z-fighting

I have attached the resulting json file and the Python3 program
(mkjson) that generated it. I also tried saving the snippet as
test.txt, and it worked on that as well.

There are three ways to call the program:

Uses filename as key

python3 mkjson model.scad

Specify custom key

python3 mkjson model.scad output.json spherediff

Save without custom key

python3 mkjson model.scad output.json

No need to actually use *.scad as input

Hope that helps, Ken!

Larry

REXX. Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time!

On Thu, Feb 19, 2026 at 2:18 PM larry via Discuss <
discuss@lists.openscad.org> wrote:

On Thu, 2026-02-19 at 14:51 -0600, Father Horton wrote:

My all-time favourite language. Learned it as ARexx on my Amiga.

Thanks Larry- I've sent a reply direct in response to your pm.

On 2026-02-20 07:18, larry wrote:

--
Cheers, Ken
bats059@gmail.com
https://vk7krj.com
https://vk7krj.com/running.html

A baby can be defined as an ego with a noise at one end and a smell at the other.
Your job as parents is to teach them to control all three.
My job as a grandad is to tell you how you are doing it all wrong!

On 2/19/26 15:52, Father Horton via Discuss wrote:

And I recall fondly the ARexx written by Bill Hawes from 30+ years ago
when myself and another smart kid at the tv station I was then the CE
of, wrote 95% of the on air gfx stuff for the decade before the leaking
ni-cad battery's destroyed the motherboards.  Bills version was totally
integrated into the AmigaDos OS, making it many times more powerful than
the I've Been Moved version.  Jim had the vision to write the outline,
and I made it work, then compiled it to straight assembly with REXX
Plus, written by a FoMoCo Engineer.  We wrote and published EzCron
because Vixie cron wouldn't build on amigados, with an early NTP driving
the clocks, we could do frame accurate station breaks automatically. We
also wrote and sold EzHome, for X10 home auto stuff.  All this of course
was in the 90's of last century. I never owned a dos box, I went from
amigados to linux in '98 and never looked back.  IBM's version had zero
integration with the OS, which the linux version duplicated, crippling
it so our code couldn't be ported.  And Bill never got a penny from the
Commode door people.  That hurt my sense of justice. He wrote some great
stuff & should have been well compensated.

Thanks much for the trip down memory lane.

Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

• Louis D. Brandeis
  Don't poison our oceans, interdict drugs at the src.

On Thu, 2026-02-19 at 17:54 -0500, gene heskett via Discuss wrote:

Replying privately because it's off-topic for the mailing list.

I was a sysop on Compuserve's Amiga forum, a member of Vancouver BC's
Panorama Amiga user's group (they voted me a lifetime free membership
and the tiel 'Guru'.

I also wrote many articles for a monthly magazine called Transactor For
the Amiga, published in Toronto.

My name is Larry Phillips, in case you want to download any of those
magazines.

Just about everything I wrote had an ARexx port.

I ended up in a job with Sun Microsystems that required me to learn
Unix, and later, another job that required me to use Windows.

Cheers,
Larry

On 2/19/26 18:54, larry via Discuss wrote:

Agreed, reply likewise. But I see t-bird disagrees. #$@%&

Heard of it, never saw it at the news-stands here in WV.

And linux has become so complex that its looking more and more
like windows. Sad.

And I had to read some Claude code to find out how to build the
OrcaSlicer-2.3.2-dev version, the only one that knows anything
about my latest printer, a sovol sv08 MAX, a 65+kg monster with
a 500x500x500 mm work envelope.  The result is alpha grade
but works if I get the .3mf somewhere near right.  My problem
ATM is it doesn't like PCTG but has done a couple plates of PC.
PCTG seems to need higher temp drying to make it usable.
I've seen msgs indicating as high as 90C to dry it & the best
I have is 70C-sh. 48 hours at 65C isn't near hot enough for PCTG.

I was pretty active in the Amiga world back in the day so we
may have "talked" before linux took over the server arena.

Glad to have possibly met you in another time & world, Larry.

I'm at 91, 40+ years a diabetic, un-vaxed & approaching the
~30~ of my story. Pacemaker will need a new one as the
battery is getting weak, EOL about another year.  TAVR valve
in my heart.  My music teacher I'd had for 31 years passed in
2020 from COPD, so I'm alone for the last 5.25 years.

Take care & stay warm.

Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.

"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.

• Louis D. Brandeis
  Don't poison our oceans, interdict drugs at the src.