Subject:
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idea for firmware development
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 17 Nov 1999 23:44:18 GMT
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Original-From:
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Brian Connors <connorbd@yahoo./saynotospam/com>
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Viewed:
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428 times
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As long as we're talking freeware spirit.ocx
replacement, how about this: freeware reimplementation
of the Lego firmware itself. Not so much like LegOS,
more the idea of creating a bytecode-compatible open
source firmware package that is extensible in ways
that Lego might take a year or more to get to.
Basically, my thinking is this: first, Lego is
creating a toy, and toys don't have the upgrade
turnaround time that "real software" often does.
Second, the RCX firmware is not (and most likely won't
be anytime in the near future) Open Source. This is
not necessarily a bad thing per se, but it's still
problematic for the hacker community, which is why we
have LegOS in the first place.
Someone mentioned the idea of Linux for the RCX. This
is hideously impractical (as someone else pointed out,
even ELKS won't fit), but there's an interesting idea
underlying that. Linux is where it is because it's a
clone of Unix, duplicating and extending its
traditional functionality while running many of the
same applications and utilities. This is what I'm
suggesting here. The essence of the idea is bytecode
and comm protocol compatibility; in other words, if a
program is sent via spirit.ocx (or NQC or even, one
can only hope, spectre) it won't know whether it's
dealing with the lego stuff or the new stuff UNLESS it
uses extensions.
(Brian walks down the hall to the infomercial stage
where the "audience" sits like trained seals, clapping
madly in that Stepford Spectator way they often have)
Now what do you have in mind featurewise, Brian you
non-RCX-owning poseur, I hear you asking. Well, that's
a very good question. I think the big one is probably
VLL. Some of Scout's hinted-at multiprocessing
features might be a good idea too. And of course, the
idea of being able to use RCXcode or NQC without
Lego's bugs might work too.
So? Anyone interested? (I'd do it myself, but
Seance/Spectre is tricky enough in and of itself...)
/Brian
=====
--
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | RE: idea for firmware development
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| (...) Hmmm, kind of like pbForth... Cheers, Ralph Hempel - P.Eng ---...--- Check out pbFORTH for LEGO Mindstorms at: (URL) ---...--- Reply to: rhempel at bmts dot com ---...--- (25 years ago, 18-Nov-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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