Subject:
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Re: Text languages for programming NXT?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics.nxt
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Date:
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Thu, 4 Jan 2007 22:11:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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12107 times
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In lugnet.robotics.nxt, Brian Kendig wrote:
> What text-based languages are available right now for programming the NXT? And
> which of them are somewhat mature at this point?
>
> A Google search turns up a few, such as NBC and NNQC and even a version of Java
> for the NXT, but what's the popular opinion on which are the best these days?
To the best of my knowledge, there isn't a version of Java for the NXT yet.
Brian Bagnall could say for sure but I expect it won't be long before there is
something like leJOS for the NXT.
NBC is available for multiple platforms (Win32, Mac OSX, and Linux). It is kind
of like fancy assembly language. There are a ton of API macros which make
programming in NBC almost like programming in C without any high-level
programming constructs like if/else, while, for, etc... NBC is the oldest
text-based programming language for the NXT and is very stable/mature. For
producing the fastest and smallest executables for the standard NXT firmware NBC
is the very best choice. There is a good deal of documentation available in the
form of an NBC Manual and an NBC Tutorial as well as a lot of sample code.
NXC (Not eXactly C) is similar to NQC but it is designed for the NXT and it is
built on top of the NBC compiler. NXC is C-like. It is available on all the
platforms supported by NBC. It provides several high-level programming
constructs such as if-else, while, do-while, for, and goto. It supports all the
NXT datatypes (with the exception, currently, of structs). It is very new and is
under active development with new features being released every few days. NXC,
then, is not very mature at this point since it is undergoing frequent
enhancements. While there is a lot of sample code available for NXC there is
not yet a lot of documentation for NXC.
NPG is a simple text language for writing RPG (NXT Programs) which run on the
standard NXT firmware. RPG files can have 5 commands (either waits or moves) in
them and the set of supported steps is defined by the implementation of the
RPGReader.sys program. NPG is also built into the NBC compiler.
NBC, NXC, and NPG are all supported within the BricxCC IDE on the Win32
platform.
NNQC is an interesting programming language/IDE which uses NBC under the hood.
The parser appears to allow for a variety of formats which can vary from not
looking anything like C to looking sort of like C. In addition to compiling and
downloading programs which run on the standard NXT firmware it can also run
PC-based scripts using the same language which communicate via direct/system
commands with the NXT, which is pretty cool.
There is a commercial alternate firmware available for the NXT called RobotC.
It has a sister firmware (also commercial) called Robolab 2.9. RobotC is only
available for Win32 at present. Robolab is not a text-based programming
language but it is available for Mac and Windows platforms.
Ralph Hempel is working very diligently on an alternate firmware called pbLua
which will allow you to program the NXT using Lua. It is extremely cool from
what I have seen. Coming soon! :-) BricxCC will fully support programming the
NXT using Lua with the pbLua firmware.
My very biased opinion is that NBC/NXC are a great pair of languages which will
almost certainly meet the needs of any NXT programmer. And the support is
great! :-)
John Hansen
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Text languages for programming NXT?
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| What text-based languages are available right now for programming the NXT? And which of them are somewhat mature at this point? A Google search turns up a few, such as NBC and NNQC and even a version of Java for the NXT, but what's the popular (...) (18 years ago, 4-Jan-07, to lugnet.robotics.nxt)
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