Subject:
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Re: Gordon's Brick Programmer Version 1.4.2
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 27 Jan 1999 17:11:04 GMT
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Original-From:
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Malcolm S Powell <msp@umbraSAYNOTOSPAM.co.uk>
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Viewed:
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1282 times
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Hi Jim,
> For someone who is just getting into mindstorms, but has Logo experience,
> what can you do with your software that you cannot do with the basic
> Mindstorms software. Also how does the capabilities of yours compare to
> Visual Basic?
The basic Mindstorms software does not fully exploit the programming
model made available via the Spirit OCX. It imposes tight limits on
program complexity and does not provide access to all of the features
implemented by the standard RCX firmware. However, it is easy to use for
its intended target audience, i.e. children who can use it with little
guidance and learn about software and control systems through play. The
RIS graphical interface builds on the brick metaphor and needs little
explanation. However, it is quite tedious to use for constructing other
than simple programs.
Gordon's Brick Programmer was designed for use by children who have
mastered the software provided by Lego and have come up against its
limitations. It supports almost all of the built-in facilities of the
RCX. However, it maintains a simple to use visual interface that can be
used more quickly than the RIS software, but does not require detailed
knowledge of textual language syntax to be acquired. Additional
concepts, e.g. named variables and tasks are introduced.
Programs are displayed as a tree in the same way as the folder hierarchy
displayed in the windows explorer. The user can see as much or as little
of a program as they want by folding and unfolding the tree. The
attributes of the currently selected command in the tree are displayed
alongside the it and can be edited. Routine names, task names and
variables names used in commands are all bound directly to their
definitions. This means that changing the name of a variable in its
definition causes all of the commands using that variable to be updated
simultaneously. No text based global replace command is required to
maintain program consistency.
The above is an overview of GBP. Other facilities include a library
import mechanism, printing and saving of a textual representation of a
program and a programmable keyboard for remote control of RCX based
models. Future developments will probably include integrated tutorial
material and support for more than one language paradigm.
GBP is written in Visual Basic, not because it is the best language I
have ever used, but because I had the tools available. You can clearly
do everything that GBP can do in VB (or any other language that can talk
directly to the Spirit OCX or drive the interface to the IR Tower).
However, the average child might find this a bit over the top if they
are more interested in getting robots to work than in getting to grips
with the syntax and semantics of a textually represented language.
I am of course aware that the RIS software (and GBP) is used by somewhat
older "children" and before choosing an editor (I would rather call it a
development environment) they need to decide what they are most
interested in doing with it.
At the end of the day its horses for courses. If you look upon
Mindstorms as an educational tool for young kids, you may not want to
inflict a commercial programming language on them at an early stage. At
the other extreme, if you are a hard-core robot hacker you may want to
get beyond the built-in limitations of the programming model supported
by the Spirit OCX. In that case LegOs and NCQ are probably for you.
Regards
Malcolm S Powell
--
Did you check the web site first?: http://www.crynwr.com/lego-robotics
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Gordon's Brick Programmer Version 1.4.2
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| For someone who is just getting into mindstorms, but has Logo experience, what can you do with your software that you cannot do with the basic Mindstorms software. Also how does the capabilities of yours compare to Visual Basic? Thanks Jim Clark (...) (26 years ago, 27-Jan-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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