Quote:
Originally Posted by FourPenguins
...I know how much our programmers have to know just to write an autonomous mode (their voodoo amazes me), and it may be time for an easier platform.
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I think the existing "platform" could be made a whole lot easier simply by changing the architecture of the default code. There's a bit of baggage still hanging around from the pre-2004 PBASIC days, and the division of code into separate "user" and "user_fast" files is a little ragged. It can be reworked to do exactly the same thing but be separated into smaller functional chunks, making it less intimidating and more approachable for the beginning user.
Rationalizing the interrupt service code, and incorporating some of Kevin Watson's contributions (interrupt-driven A/D conversions, for example) could make it even easier.
The past couple of years, we've taken the default code's "user" files apart and put them back together in a slightly different shape. The architectural philosophy of putting separate functionality in separate places, including keeping input and output processes detached from each other, seems to work very well. To bring this back to Ed's comment, having that detachment makes doing autonomous programming relatively simple.