Subject:
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Re: lack of interest in basic stamp and basicx
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 23 Nov 1999 19:22:02 GMT
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Original-From:
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The WordMeister <dwilcox@!antispam!wordsmithdigital.com>
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Viewed:
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614 times
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From a somewhat-less-technical background:
I think I have enough electronics tinkering experience to breadboard
together some of the "home brew" sensors--if I do build 'em, the first would
probably be the $3.50 temperature sensor, although of more immediate utility
(i.e., fun) would be some dual-color LED bricks.
I don't, however, have a good programming background--just some ancient
BASIC and some more recent complex formula-writing experience. I can,
however, fathom NQC, and am currently taking my first steps in it--but can
see where it might be a bit difficult to learn without any experience
programming at all (and, to be honest, the MindStorms drag-n-drop doohickey
is quite easy to use and not.all that inflexible--and my son Isaac the
Wonder Boy can operate it with minimal help). But it is very unlikely that
I'll be programming the RCX in pbForth or C++ anytime soon, especially as
the RCC/NQC combination will do everything I need it to that the MindStorms
software won't.
One of my favorite features of Lego MindStorms is its inherent
accessibility. Although I've read about, and I'm sure I would enjoy the
BASIC stamp, the fact is that MindStorms is cheaper and easier-to-build. My
4-year-old and I have a great time working on MindStorms projects. I'm not
sure the same would be true of the more advanced platforms.
Some _wonderful_ opinions on this issue. This has been a fun thread.
--Doug Wilcox
WordSmith Digital Document Services
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Rockland, MA 02370
781-871-6162
fax 781-871-6264
http://www.wordsmithdigital.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: Jonathan Perret <jperret@cybercable.fr>
To: lego-robotics@crynwr.com <lego-robotics@crynwr.com>
Date: Tuesday, November 23, 1999 11:00 AM
Subject: Re: lack of interest in basic stamp and basicx
>
>
> > Hi
> > I am a little bit curious as to why there seems to
> > be such a lack of interest in the Parallax Basic Stamp
> > and its new high powered alternative the Basicx.
>
>
> What I've always wondered about the Basic Stamp is why anyone would
> want to use Basic to program an microcontroller.
> I love Basic but when coding for a robot I want to take full
> advantage of the hardware, and that means programming it in Forth
> or C. There isn't anything you can do in Basic that you can't do
> by programming the firware yourself.
> The same goes for NQC or orther tools relying on the standard Lego
> firmware. Why people insist on using the Lego firmware when it
> imposes completely artificial limitations on things you can do in
> your programs ?
> I don't mean to say that NQC is not an outstanding tool, I just
> don't understand why people who are ready to mess with electronics
> to build homemade sensors don't take the plunge and code directly
> to the metal...
>
> Confused,
> --Jonathan
>
>
>
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