Subject:
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Re: What to start out with?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Wed, 15 Dec 1999 21:56:32 GMT
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Viewed:
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848 times
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Well, having read both books now, I have to say this: which book you want
first depends on
what you are looking for.
Jonathan's book (the O'Reilly book) is good if you are looking for a survey
of all the programming
tools available, and a few basic models from which to learn some programming
techniques. Read it
and you get some perspective of the amazing size and strength of the
Mindstorms hacking community.
Dave's book (from aPress) is good if you plan to stick with the RIS
programming system or to switch
to NQC (Dave's brainchild, and excellent tool for programming a mindstorms
robot if you are already
familiar with text-based, procedural programming (i.e. not for kids who
haven't programmed before
unless they have a lot of help from Mom or Dad)), it spends LESS time on the
variety of programming
environments and more time on:
Lego (Technic) construction techniques and design "cliche's".
Programming techniques and tricks using RIS code or NQC
"Evolving" a robot design from a basic robot to something interesting.
Personally, I think I got more out of Dave's book than I did from Jonathan's
(but I like having both) and
Jonathan's is what convinced me I *had* to have mindstorms this year, it
also led me to read another
of Seymour Papert's books, just out of interest.
Personally, I think the best illustration of the diff between the books
(where they overlap) is in looking at
the techniques used to program a line-follower. Jonathan's program is very
simple, but falls into the classic
"trap" thinking of trying to make the follower track the center of the line
(on average, since obviously that's
impossible with a single light sensor) while Dave's correctly describes and
implements the less obvious
technique of following an *edge* of the line, so you know which direction to
turn when you fall off the
edge (if you fall off and things get brighter, turn left, if you fall off
and things got darker, turn right). I'd already
thought of that when I read the book, but my daughter (almost 9) hadn't! :-)
Finally, I think there are at *least* two more books that should be written,
at least peripherally related to
mindstorms:
1. The complete guide to Lego Mindstorms sensors, including how to
design your own, how to modify
the existing ones for various nefarious purposes (i.e. better
dynamic range from the light sensor), and
how to use the ones you have creatively (i.e. light sensor + fiber
lamp = rotation sensor).
2. Mindstorms in Education -- a survey of how Mindstorms can be used to
enhance the K-12 educational
curriculum (A'la Seymour's "Children's Machine" book, but more
concrete and Mindstorms centric) with
detailed coverage of RoboLab, etc.
Well, o.k *three* books:
3. A complete guide to Lego Construction and Design techniques. Cover
all the design cliche's, describe
various standard subassemblies, conversion of rotary energy to
linear, use of the differential, etc. Perhaps
even cover the vaious Lego CAD tools (LDraw, LeoCAD, MLCAD, etc.)
Just my $0.02
-Peter
Peter A. Vogel
Release Engineering Manager
iReady Corporation
http://www.iready.com http://www.iready.net
Mike Kory <kory@advancenet.net> wrote in message
news:FMs9LK.LBo@lugnet.com...
> I like Dave Baum's book better as a first book. Most people in this group
> seem to use NQC which is covered in-depth. Also has lots of construction
> ideas and the pictures are a little better.
> Mike
>
> Luis Villa <liv@duke.edu> wrote in message
> news:Pine.SOL.3.91.991215012514.10125D-100000@teer13.acpub.duke.edu...
> > On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Hari Wiguna wrote:
> > > There are also two books on MindStorms, I'm still reading, so I cannot • make
> > > a recommendation yet.
> >
> > Particularly if you are just starting, and if you are interested in the
> > coding more than the construction, I very highly recommend O'Reilly's
> > Unofficial Guide to Lego Mindstorms. Covers all your bases and is very
> > well written.
> >
> > Luis
> >
> > #######################################################################
> >
> > Profanity is the one language that all programmers understand.
> > -Anonymous
> >
> > #######################################################################
>
>
>
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: What to start out with?
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| I like Dave Baum's book better as a first book. Most people in this group seem to use NQC which is covered in-depth. Also has lots of construction ideas and the pictures are a little better. Mike Luis Villa <liv@duke.edu> wrote in message (...) (25 years ago, 15-Dec-99, to lugnet.robotics)
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