ini to HAL communication

clive wrote:

I'm a programmer, I'm used to writing my own variable names...

As a programmer you might be interested to know that you appear to have identified a namespace clash.

The spindle.N.on (etc) signals are created by the HAL "motion" component.

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/motion.9.html

But there is also a "spindle" HAL component that is intended to handle gear changes and spindle ramp rate control.

linuxcnc.org/docs/2.8/html/man/man9/spindle.9.html

I wish that I could blame someone else for this, but it was I who changed the names of the motion.spindle.... pins as part of the introduction of multiple spindle support, and also I who committed a HAL component for spindle gearing support that had been sat uncommitted for several years without spotting the scope for confusion.

I will add an explanatory note to the documentation for the "spindle" HAL component.

In nearly every case you would want to look at the "motion" docs to understand the "spindle" pins.