Is there going to be a PBasic emulator out there??

[Matt Attallah]

Is there going to be a emulator or something similar to that so we FIRST programmers can test and play with our stuff?? If there is, I would like to help some. If not, i will be bummed. I would start it, but i don't know C, C++, Perl, etc... so i can't start it. If there is an emulator, even a home-made one that would help so much if we can put some "fake" switches and see if our code works correctly...

Thx,
Matt

[Lloyd Burns]

Instead of going to the trouble / fun of writing / buying an emulator program for PBASIC (at a cost of ???), buy a real Basic Stamp II (you decide the version), and write programs for that. Perhaps you could obtain one of the chip-on-a-bosrd sets that Parallax sells.

I have an old BS2 mounted on a circuit board next to an inline header into which I have plugged an LCD 16x2 screen. I write a snippet to test, and have the results displayed on screen. The PBASIC isn't likely to change much soon, so this catches logic errors for me.

An emulator that would evaluate a complete robot control program in real time could easily overlook some little filigree that becomes glaringly important - debug on the robot.

[Matt Attallah]

Did you buy the BS2 chip or where you able to find it in some circut board? I really, really like the programming, but it isn't too cool when you write a code and can't try it out some where in your own house. (Rember, I am a student at Melvindale and I don't have constant access to the robot and i want to be one of the main programmers next year.) I know i can use sintax check, but that isn't too fun. It is better in the "Trial-And-Error" way for me....

<a href="http://www.robocards.org">Robocards Web site, check it out!!</a>

[Joe Johnson]

Go to RobotStore.com or ParallaxInc.com in order to buy the stamp2 chips and a carrier board.

Robot Store Stamp Stuff

ParallaxInc Stamp2 Carrier Boards


The carrier board is great because it can use a 9V battery to power the Stamp2. All you need is a 9 pin cable and PC & you're coding to your heart's delight.



Hope this helps.

Joe J.

[Jon Lawton]

What kind of debugging facilities are available for use with the code on the robot controller? I saw some kind of "debugger" integrated with the Stamp Editor software we are supplied with, but its use was not inuitive to say the least. Any pointers to documentation or software I'm missing?

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Jon Lawton
What kind of debugging facilities are available for use with the code on the robot controller? I saw some kind of "debugger" integrated with the Stamp Editor software we are supplied with, but its use was not inuitive to say the least. Any pointers to documentation or software I'm missing?

I think you're refering to the debug terminal of the StampW editor. A debug terminal window opens whenever you download a program (or at least whenever that program contains DEBUG commands.) You can use the DEBUG command in your program to display data as your program runs -- just like using printf to debug a C program.

The new StampW editor version 1.2 (available at Parallax Inc.) has built in context sensitive help which describes the DEBUG command fairly well. It looks like this online help is pretty much the same as is in the BASIC Stamp Manual v2.0 (also available for download from the Parallax site.) Note: the online help only covers Chapter 5: BASIC STAMP COMMAND REFERENCE of the manual. It doesn't include Chapter 4: BASIC STAMP ARCHITECTURE which includes the following topics:

• Memory Organization
• Defining Variables
• Defining Arrays
• Aliases and Modifiers
• Constants and Expressions
• Number Representations
• Order of Operations
• Math and Operators

which are AT LEAST as important as the commands (especially since many of the commands are not applicable to our little "CPU in a bubble" [see Joe Johnson's white paper Practical PBASIC Programming])

[Adam Krajewski]

There is a Basic Stamp I emulator. But no Basic Stamp 2(SX) emulator, to my knowledge... However, AWC Electronics seems to have a lot of prototyping materials available.

Adam Krajewski

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by gwross
The new StampW editor version 1.2 (available at Parallax Inc.) has built in context sensitive help....)

FYI, version 1.3 is now available which fixes a couple of old bugs which had bitten me a number of times.