Mac Programmers be happy! It's finally here!
 

I dunno if this was mentioned before but someone asked me if it was possible to program a basic stamp on OS X without using virtualpc, so I went in search of a unix program I could perhaps port to OS X ($@#$@#$@#$@# now I remember about what I was going to do to roboemu.. doh!!!)

This is what I found MacBS2

In basic, with a keyspan type adapter, you can finally program from your powermac, powerbook, ibook or imac, or whatever else you have.. WITHOUT virtual PC.

Man this means great things for when I get my powerbook later this year :D

SWEEEEEEEEEET!

Thanks for the link!

~Gabriel

Exxxxxxxxxxceeellllllllllllennnnnnnnnnnnnntttttttt tttttttt.....

About damned time!

Aaron Knight
Webmaster and Videographer
Team 891: Neverending Chaos...
http://first891.topcities.com

It's been out since before the build. I posted it here before.


It doesn't work with OS 9 though.


http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...&highlight=MAC

Does this/can this be made to support PBASIC 2.0? I tried it a while ago and it couldn't tokenize 2.0...

A new release of MacBS2 is up and it handles .bsx files now. I've just tried it with the Edu Bot program, but so far it seems to work.

BTW, the author has some other nice work posted on his personal website. Interesting use of scanners in the "pressure project: scanner".

Yeah, I posted about this back in January, and I used it all this year for our robot. It works really well. There isn't support in it for PBASIC 2.0 yet because it tokenizes with a library that you download from Parallax. They haven't released the PBASIC 2.0 library for use yet. When they do release this library, the program will be ready to go. I highly suggest using this program, and if you have time, send a thank you to the author, since he is asking nothing, and I think he added the 2sx support because I e-mailed him and told him about FIRST.

lol yeah. I was really glad of it myself and was hoping other people would find out ^_^, and for those that did, I'm *REALLY* glad to hear :)

I still say it's a nice plus to bring along, say a mac laptop to do programming, but not only that, but have the sexiest laptop (not to mention OS) on the team.. or in the arena ^_^)

yeeeah,.

Excellent! Now we'll be able to program with the school's new iBooks (assuming they have the right hardware).

Yeah.. Macs..

http://www.ancientspear.com/mac.wmv

Best. Mac. Video. Ever.

What are the primary differences between 1.3 and 2.0. For our relatively basic usage of these languages, aren't they pretty close? (And doesn't 1.3 have a somewhat normal if-then control structure?)

Cool
 

Except our main programmer is stuck in Windoze.

But that doesn't stop me from teaching the up and coming group to use OSX.

And Kudos for the lack of Mac bashing that usually occurs when you mention
using Apple based anything
:-)

Of course when I think about the next FIRST contest I have to think about school starting again...I for one am not quite ready yet.

Lack of mac bashing?? Didn't you see that hilarous video AJ Quick posted a link to? :)

I frankly don't care whether I'm using a Windows or Mac machine to program in PBASIC! I'll use whatever I have available.

1.3 only has if goto type structure. If you're used to it (and not doing anything overly complicated), isn't terribly bad, but leads to spaghetti code quite quickly.

2.0 has a real if then else structure

Yeah some people are still immature, that know little to nothing about the mac.

Anyways I have to agree with monsieurcoffee that for programming it really isn't all that different. It is basically a text editor that can transfer data to the RC. However you have to have a USB to serial converter for either a mac or new wintel machine to transfer. So basically it is whatever you can find.

I really do hope that next year controller will have a USB connection for ease of use, and the fact that the serial port is fading away in Wintel machines (especially laptops)

But it is nice that it is possible to have a native program for the mac that can program.

Okay- I guess we just programmed our 2.0 code wrong. We were using that funny goto if structure the whole time we were programming in 2.0.

Yeah... because those people have probably never used a Mac before.

I thought the movie clip was hilarious though the guy was talking about os x and os 9 issues. Pretty well made video. A few things weren't all that accurate though.

OK here is a video about Microsoft

http://ms.powermac99.com/

I don't understand that one.. it is a video of Microsoft's quite cool museum, and all the PC worlds achievments.

Um.... did you notice:

The Mac in the video?

And exactly what of the PC world's achievements are you referring to? They are few and far between, and mostly ripoffs of Apple anyhow.

Plus, of course, realize that Apple is a PC maker too... "PC" stands for "Personal Computer" of which Apple's computers have always been the most personal.....

if they continue to use ANY of the stamp type microcontrollers, the serial port is most likely to stay. They are all natively programmed through serial, and there is nothing IF can do about that except to build in a USB to serial converter, which is not likley.

I knew someone was going to insult my intelligence once again in this thread by telling me that.. I was going to say IBM compatibles just to be more correct.

I am not here to start an argument or whatnot, but what the heck are you talking about? Apple doesn't have any type of spam in any of there applications, trust me. In fact there Mail application filters it out.

The only nagware I know that Apple has is for QuickTime Basic.

That term is so outdated, that it could even stand for a Mac. IBM makes PPC chips for Apple since the 601. With the introduction of the G5, Apple glorifies that there is an IBM chip inside.

IBM is mainly in the Unix business (Linux, Mac OS X, etc) now against Microsoft. So an "IBM compatible machine" could mean anything these days.

The proper term is “Wintel” meaning Windows Intel Machine. Even though AMD makes x86 chips.

I've watched that video a couple times and found it to be quite hillarious....

"This handle here is so you can attach a chain and use it as a boat anchor!!"

lol good stuff :) Personally, I've never had a mac.. but my friend did and I used it..... I don't ever plan to own a mac. But more power to you mac programmers out there.

Sorry I was being very vague about that. It was an article about intergrating commercial transactions into ordianry applications. It was just a warning that it could get ugly like email spam if it doesn't remain tasteful like the two examples below. It basically talked about apple's iTunes and how it had intergrated a music store and then it went on to Microsoft about how it was doing the same thing on its operating system.

Until usage catches up with "Wintel", I'll stick with "PC" and "IBM compatible". "Wintel" still seems too new and ostentatious (dare I say proper?;) ) for my taste.

I got excited when I saw the posts on this thread earlier. My son had a nice Mac PowerBook laptop which he took to Houston, but by then we were using PBasic 2.0 so we still couldn't use his laptop.

Anyone have any idea when we will be able to program in 2.0 on the Mac? (I cannot see us going back to PBasic 1.3.) I would love it if I could use my own Mac next year. Also my son now has the latest Mac PowerBook laptop with a 17 wide screen.

Also has anyone tried using Virtual PC or some other Windows emulator on their OS X Mac to program in PBasic 2.0?

No insult intended, but as mentioned elsewhere also in this thread the lines are very blurred.......

Apple's been working with both IBM and Motorola for chips since around 1993......

Mac /Wintel doesn't matter
 

Well the next statement belongs in Rumors but what the heck.

The Parralax chip is gone. We are programming in C next year.

All new controller, new chip (no I don't know which one yet) and no more 25 pin connectors. All will be those PWM type pins.

No word on what machines will support the compiler either.

If I could find someone to take a bet I would guess a 3 vs 3 game next year :-)

Later Days!

Re: Mac /Wintel doesn't matter
 

Wow! That was quite a mouthful. Sounds pretty exciting.

Are you able to divulge your sources?

Comparison: Mac OS X, Windows XP, Linux
 

To anyone interested in operating systems,

I just ran across this comparison of Mac OS X, Windows XP and Linux, updated on Aug. 11, 2003:

http://thetechnozone.com/smartbuyers...otout-2003.htm

Re: Comparison: Mac OS X, Windows XP, Linux
 

Heh. Maybe I'm just too tired to take a serious look at it (not saying I didn't read it, mind you), but I'd definitely file that under H for Humor. That's some funny stuff.

E.G.

Not to say that it's not a very good analysis. It really is pretty good, and worth reading.

<<Originally posted by EStokely
Well the next statement belongs in Rumors but what the heck.

The Parralax chip is gone. We are programming in C next year.

......
>>


<<
Wow! That was quite a mouthful. Sounds pretty exciting.

Are you able to divulge your sources?

__________________
Doug Hogg
>>

Like I said before it belongs in the rumor section but its *almost* straight from IFI.

I believe it so much I decided to skip teaching any PBasic this Fall (yea!)

As for the OS comparison, It actually sounded a bit Mac biased. But for the most part a computer is a tool. If it doesn't do what you expect all of the time then its defective. (Yea I know even Macs screw up :-) )

Not nearly as satisfying as this.........


http://www.flamingmailbox.com/maccom...s/pcshoot.html

ahhh....

but what Mac discussion isn't without discussing Will Ferrell...

http://www.flamingmailbox.com/maccom...s/ferrell.html

I haven't tried this personally, but I doubt it will work. As far as I know (unless this changed with the recent update and I didn't read about it), VPC doesn't have support for USB devices other than keyboards and mice, so you wouldn't be able to use a usb to serial adapter.

Oh well...small steps first...

woops, it seems i spoke too fast. it looks like the new version, 6.1, does in fact support usb devices. up to 15 at a time, in fact. has anyone used 6.1?

The below pic is what happens when you try to emu windows 95 on a mac... :)

I beg to differ with you...I did use Virtual PC for quite a while before finding the nice Mac program to work with. Actually, IFI has a PDF lurking on their website with directions on how to set up Virtual PC to program with...so trust me, you can do it. I used Virtual PC 5 (6 wasn't readily available when I used it) and Windows 98SE in it. It sure wasn't pretty, but my PowerBook managed just fine.

Just a comment about the PBasic compiler for OS X. I used it last year on a PowerBook G4 at the VCU regionals, and it works great! Also if you just like using the Mac OS over the Windows OS, and you are running OS 9, you can use MS Office to edit the code, and transfer it into the editor on a Windows machine. That's what I did with my older PowerBook 5300.
mark

Well IFI is upgrading the robot controller. We just don't know how though for certainity.