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Actually, the Innovations First Robot controller in the kit uses the Parallax BS2SX stamp that is based on the Scenix (now UBICOM) SC28AC/SS communications controller. This is a 50MHz (mostly) single cycle RISC micro with EE/Flash progam memory. The Parallax BS1 and earlier BS2 families were based on the Microchip 16XXX PICs. That being said, as an embedded controls software designer, I will agree that PBASIC is very 'clunky'. But it is simple to learn for an educational process such as we have here. It would be nice to program this device using 'C', as pointed out in the earlier discussions. I personally have mused many a time about 'fixing the problems with PBASIC'. I would agree with Joe, the way I would attack it is to define a set of extensions to the syntax of PBASIC that give the constructs that you are looking for (i.e. IF THEN ELSE, those darn funky operator precedence rules, etc...). Write the PBASIC code mixing in these extensions as needed. Write a pre-processor (in the language of your choice) that reads in the file with source code and extensions and outputs a generic PBASIC syntax source file. Load the PBASIC generic source file into the toolset, compile and download. This way, those that choose to use the extensions can, and those that do not can use the old method. Probably the best 'bang for the buck' without getting into a significant amount of effort. My .02
Kurt Ehrhardt
Engineer and parent
Team 'Buzz'
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