Mach3 development stopped about 5 years ago.2 Mach 3 - but pretty unsupported now and poorly documented and will motion controller plugin support continue?
There are a lot of different motion controllers for Mach3, and you'll find that their plugins don't all support the same features, and don't all support them the same way.
The ones that function closest to the parallel port are the ESS from Warp9, and any motion controllers from CNC Drive (UC100, UC300ETH, UC400ETH). I know that CNC Drive still peridoically updates their Mach3 plugins, and will fix any reported bugs. This can get tricky, though, because different versions of Mach3 can cause plugins to work differently.
They apparently feel that Lua was the best option. I think the user base is very small, compared to Mach3. Imo, they are surviving solely on their OEM sales.3 Mach 4 – but why did they choose Lua as a scripting language rather than for example Python? Is the user base big enough for it to survive?
From what I hear, Mach4 is much better than Mach3. But a lot of the choices the developers made have caused a lot of Mach3 users to look elsewhere.
UCCNC is getting very popular with former Mach3 users. Note that it doesn't have a lathe or turn mode.
4 UCCNC
5 PlanetCNC
6 Linux CNC – not sure if this supports motion controllers and anyway has a reputation for difficulty in setting up
I know of a few Planet CNC users that are happy with it.
Eding CNC is also a good option.
Linux CNC users will tell you that it's easy to set up. It's not that hard, if you don't mind using Linux.
Mesa makes Linux CNC motion boards.
http://store.mesanet.com/index.php?r...tegory&path=83