Subject:
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Re: Why NQC over Robolab?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 7 Dec 2004 16:29:11 GMT
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Viewed:
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903 times
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In lugnet.robotics, Thomas Johnson wrote:
> I'm hoping that someone who is familiar with both NQC and Robolab can enlighten
> me. Specifically, with regard to the RCX, Scout, and microScout, what can you
> do in NQC that you cannot do in Robolab? Is it simply a matter of programming
> environment preference or does NQC have some real advantages?
I'm not very familiar with Robolab so I can't give you a direct comparison
between the two. But I can say a few things about NQC that might help.
With NQC you write programs in a more traditional style of programming (ala C,
C++, C#, Java, etc...) where a program is a text file containing keywords,
identifiers, program flow control structures, and so forth. The text file is
then compiled into bytecodes for the target firmware (RCX1, RCX2, Scout,
Cybermaster, Spybot, or Dick Swan's new enhanced firmware).
NQC gives you access to all the RCX, Scout, Spybot, and Cybermaster firmware
sources (variables, inputs, outputs, etc...) and opcodes. NQC does not support
the MicroScout. With NQC the programmer has complete control over variable
usage. It is easy to develop libraries of common code which can be shared
across multiple programs. NQC (in test release) supports Dick Swan's enhanced
RCX-compatible firmware with access to 255 global variables.
There are powerful IDEs available for free on the web for Windows and Mac
platforms. These IDEs provide a number of features which aid in the development
and testing of a robotics program running on the programmable brick. One IDE I
am somewhat familiar with provides a powerful help system which defines all the
keywords, constants, and commands available in NQC and has extensive built-in
documentation about the NQC programming language. It includes a tutorial and
several sample programs that work hand-in-hand with the tutorial to teach NQC to
new users. The editor included in this IDE for NQC has powerful syntax
highlighting and structure parsing tools which make editing even very large NQC
programs a breeze.
NQC also works on Linux as well as other flavors of Unix.
Using NQC will help train a programmer for more powerful LEGO programming
environments (such as brickOS and pbForth). At least one NQC IDE also includes
extensive support for these more powerful programming environments.
NQC is free. Robolab isn't.
John Hansen
http://bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nqc/
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | Re: Why NQC over Robolab?
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| An IDE is an Integrated Development Environment. Basically a software suite sporting an editor with colorcoding, a built-in compiler and a debugger. Sometimes a complete reference is included too. Examples are MS Visual C++, or Borland Delphi. (...) (20 years ago, 7-Dec-04, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Why NQC over Robolab?
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| (...) Integrated Development Environments. Typically, an IDE consists of a compiler, a text editor, debugger, build system - all the tools a programmer needs rolled up into one huge tool. ---...--- Steve Baker ---...--- HomeEmail: (...) (20 years ago, 8-Dec-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Why NQC over Robolab?
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| Greetings All, I'm hoping that someone who is familiar with both NQC and Robolab can enlighten me. Specifically, with regard to the RCX, Scout, and microScout, what can you do in NQC that you cannot do in Robolab? Is it simply a matter of (...) (20 years ago, 6-Dec-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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