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 Administrative / General / 1007
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Subject: 
Re: Robotics sub-groups
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.admin.general
Date: 
Fri, 5 Feb 1999 08:22:52 GMT
Viewed: 
1478 times
  
In lugnet.admin.general, fmm@fischer-mellbin.com (Franz-Michael S. Mellbin)
writes:
Todd Lehman writes:

I marked a few of these candidates with arrows (->) which seemed like they fit
best into a larger forward-growable general structure.  Those, in summary:

     lugnet.robotics.rcx
     lugnet.robotics.rcx.nqc
     lugnet.robotics.rcx.os.legos
     lugnet.robotics.events
     lugnet.robotics.events.robot-arena

I am uncertain about the first of your five suggestions. It is not clear to me
which topics you think should go under "lugnet.robotics.rcx". If this is for
discussing RCX firmware, I can see the idea, but general RCX related issues
should stay under "lugnet.robotics" as I suspect the RCX will be at the core of
lego robotics for some time. What about "lugnet.robotics.rcxfirmware" instead?

lugnet.robotics.rcxfirmware is certainly more accurate and descriptive than
just plain lugnet.robotics.rcx.  But I think the 'rcxfirmware' component
makes it a bit long, though, in terms of practical limitations on sub-group
names -- for example

   lugnet.robotics.rcxfirmware.nqc
   lugnet.robotics.rcxfirmware.os.legos

Let's think ahead 3-5 years for moment...  Robotics is likely to continue to
be a large sub-area of LUGNET -- and probably even to grow more rapidly than
other areas.  The RCX today is a very large part of the robotics
discussions, but down the road it might only be 1/2 or 1/3 or less as new
technologies are introduced by TLG and/or other robotics technologies come
into play through whatever means.

Thinking long-term, is the following conceivable...?

   lugnet.robotics                     Generic LEGO robotics
   lugnet.robotics.events              Miscellaneous robotics events
   lugnet.robotics.events.robot-arena  Robot Arena focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx                 High-level RCX discussions
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.fw              General RCX firmware
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.fw.nqc          NQC focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.fw.legos        legOS focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.hw              General RCX hardware
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw              General RCX host software
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw.botcode      BotCode focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw.brickcmd     BrickCommand focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw.gbp          Gordon's Brick Programmer focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw.mindctl      Mind Control focus group
   lugnet.robotics.rcx.sw.rcxcc        RCX Command Center focus group

...because if it is, then I wouldn't want to start down a different path now
which would close doors to something like that.

I could see the .rcx.fw and .rcx.sw groups having fairly high traffic
relative to the .robotics tree as a whole, with not much traffic in the
.rcx.hw area -- but some.

The lego-robotics@crynwr.com mailing list could (probably should) also be
switched to gateway with lugnet.robotics.rcx instead of lugnet.robotics,
because it started out as -- and still pretty much is -- a "LEGO Mindstorms
Internals" mailing list.  <http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics/>

I really want to have a framework in place which makes it possible to create
discussion areas for special focus groups such as NQC, legOS, Mind Control,
etc. with a minimum of debate/pre-discussion when projects like that reach
critical mass (when they have a large enough installed base that a special
area becomes helpful).  Even if the traffic in those groups is only 5 or 10
messages a day, if it helps the developers focus, then it's a good thing.


On a general note I think it would be wrong to firmly seperate programming and
construction issues. "Mindstorms" is a blast because it is about the
interaction between these two subjects. It toys with our thinking and
imagination. Both are ever present even when we are concetrating on one of
them.

Don't think of it as separating but as making more room for in-depth
discussions for esoteric issues specific to various software packages and
systems.  Right now, some depth is achieved in certain areas, but it becomes
off-topic when it gets too deep, and the thread dies or goes off-line and is
lost.  Think of it as having different rooms to talk in, where you can
always shout between rooms (crosspost with optional followups) as
appropriate.

Although there are over 600 newsgroups here, I haven't heard a single
complaint yet that the number of groups is stifling to discussions or to a
sense of comradeship.  (Some people are lobbying for a single all-of-Ohio
newsgroup, however, because the three major cities there are fairly close in
terms of driving distance.)  The multiple levels of hierarchies allow for
both very focused discussions and very high-visibility discussions.


An idea. One day - when we are tired of playing with the $$$ toy we said our
kids could not live without - I think there could be room for:
lugnet.robotics.education

Are there actually kids who are using MindStorms?  I'd love to hear some
success stories...

--Todd



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: Robotics sub-groups
 
(...) As a clarification, NQC uses the standard lego firmware, so it probably doesn't belong under lugnet.robotics.fw. Dave (26 years ago, 6-Feb-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

Message is in Reply To:
  Robotics sub-groups
 
(...) I am uncertain about the first of your five suggestions. It is not clear to me which topics you think should go under "lugnet.robotics.rcx". If this is for discussing RCX firmware, I can see the idea, but general RCX related issues should stay (...) (26 years ago, 22-Jan-99, to lugnet.admin.general)

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