Subject:
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Re: FLL not allowing NQC; Mindscript is allowed
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Thu, 10 Mar 2005 04:21:42 GMT
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Viewed:
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3208 times
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On Wed, March 9, 2005 6:31 pm, John Hansen said:
> It is *far* easier to look at a text-based program, however, and make sense of
> what it means and whether it is technically excellent than it is to look at a
> connected series of tiny icons with cryptic numbers and symbols next to them (or
> embedded within them). A volunteer judge would have to know what each image
> represented and what its semantics are before they could make any sense of a
> graphical program.
But, without knowing what the icons mean, you came pretty close to knowing what the
program does.
I would argue that it would be much easier for most kids to explain 14 icons than
30-40 lines of text. (in 4-5 minutes)
> This, for example,
>
> <<http://www.ceeo.tufts.edu/graphics/robolab/container01.gif>>
>
> vs
>
> | // make our press count global so we can access it from BricxCC
> | int PressCount;
> |
> | task beeper()
> | {
> | // beep forever
> | while (true)
> | {
> | PlayTone(440, 50);
> | Wait(100);
> | }
> | }
> |
> | task main()
> | {
> | // configure our sensor as a touch sensor
> | SetSensor(SENSOR_1,SENSOR_TOUCH);
> | // start our beeper task
> | start beeper;
> | // check for 6 touch sensor presses
> | while (PressCount <= 6)
> | {
> | // a press == pressed then not pressed
> | until(SENSOR_1);
> | until(!SENSOR_1);
> | // increment our press count
> | PressCount++;
> | }
> | // now stop beeping
> | stop beeper;
> | }
>
>
>
> A brief glance at either of the two text programs makes it clear (with or
> without comments) that the goal is to make the RCX beep continually until the
> touch sensor on port 1 is pressed 6 times.
Yes. That's very clear to you and me. But, not everyone.
> Without additional information can anyone here tell in 10 seconds what the
> Robolab program does? I highly doubt it.
Without additional information, can anyone tell what the above code does? I doubt it.
As it turns out, most of us have additional information.
The Robolab program plays a tone every second. If the button is pressed, it plays
tone #3 (I had to look it up to find it's a decending sweep). Otherwise, it plays
the default tone (again, I checked... #6, fast rising sweep). After six "fast
rising sweeps" (minimum six seconds), the program will exit. That's almost the same
as the above code.
For some people (like programmers) the text is more understandable. But I can show
you plenty of people who can read Robolab programs just fine, but would be confused
by text-based code.
It all depends on what "additional information" you start with.
Steve
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: FLL not allowing NQC; Mindscript is allowed
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| (...) Nonsense. It's not the actual *code* that you need to understand - it's the ALGORITHM. Yeah - to the totally uninitiated, a bunch of boxes with an arrow pointing backwards tells you there is a loop - and maybe a 'for ( x = 0 ; x < 10 ; x++ )' (...) (20 years ago, 10-Mar-05, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: FLL not allowing NQC; Mindscript is allowed
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| (...) First off, judging the technical merit of a program of any significant degree of complexity by simply looking at the code (be it text-based or graphical) for 20 minutes or less is nonsense. The only judging of that sort that ought to occur (...) (20 years ago, 9-Mar-05, to lugnet.robotics, FTX)
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