PBASIC 2.5 answer from Parallax

[JasonS]

I went ahead and started a new thread because there are multiple ones about this subject and I figured this would be the easiest way. Well I got some interesting news from one of the parallax engineers that is on the basic stamp yahoo group. Ill let you all read for yourself:

I wrote:

Does anyone know exactly when the new editor is supposed to be released? I'm part of the F.I.R.S.T. robotics competition and we only have a six weeks building period that started yesterday, and the default code for the control systems was written in Pbasic 2.5. None of us have anything that will tokenize the program because of the new commands. Does anyone have any early release, or know for sure when the new version will be released? Thanks!


Jon from Parallax replied:

Our goal is to have it released by the end of the month. We have a lot of testing yet to do (adding conditional compilation control so you can write one program that will work on the any BS2-family Stamp you have -- this is for advanced programmers) and the Help file has to be updated and recompiled. That is underway.

In short, we still have a bit of work to do. I can assure you that hundreds of FIRST robots have been successfully programmed with the existing syntax. I'm not sure who gave you a default program using 2.5 syntax because we haven't released all the details ... just hints here and there to keep our customers abreast of current developments.

Well, I went and looked at your program and found that it is, in fact, using 2.5 syntax. We must have sent an early version of the new compiler (sans new help and all features enabled) to the folks who run FIRST.

I MAKE NO PROMISES HERE ... but I will check with Engineering to see how early we can get a public BETA release. IF (and that's a big IF) we do, it will not include new help -- just a quick update of new additions.


> -- Jon Williams
> -- Parallax




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[Fridge]

Their goal is to have it released at the end of the month? My team's already starting to yell at me. At least people have been able to edit the code to get it to tokenize with existing versions of PBASIC.

[Caleb Fulton]

Yeah...I'm a total newbie and I got it to tokenize after rewriting it using the simple earlier if/then structures.

[InnovationFirst]

We just received news from Parallax that the release of PBASIC 2.5beta will be Friday, January 10th. The files will be available on www.innovationfirst.com (not Parallax). We apologize for the delay. Please do NOT contact Parallax, as this will just delay the release.

[AJ Quick]

This information was just released:

PBASIC 2.5 UPDATE
The version PBASIC 2.5 editor will not be released by Parallax until Friday, January 10th. On Friday, it will be released in beta form to FIRST teams only and will be available exclusively on the Innovation First, Inc. website (www.innovationfirst.com). Due to this delay, we have released a second version of the default code that does not require the new editor.

DEFAULT CODE UPDATE
There are two versions of default code loaded in the 2003 Robot Controller. The default code (DEF) is for 2-Stick driver control. The default code (USER) is for 1-Stick driver control. The default code shipped in your Robot Controller (both USER and DEF) does not contain the code that stops PWM devices with limit switches. We recommend you re-load the default code (located at www.innovationfirst.com) if this feature is needed. The default code shipped also contains test code. This is activated with sw2 of the channel switch. If you intend to use a channel dongle to access alternate channels, we recommend you re-load the default code (located at www.innovationfirst.com). Refer to the competition port pinout guide on the documentation page for information on accessing alternate channels.

[Mongoose]

Well, under the "Programming tools" section on the InnovationFirst documentation site, a disabled link to the PBasic 2.5 editor is already there. I presume they will also release a new manual? There's also a link saying "RoboEmu" to rbayer's software page. When did that get there?

[rbayer]

Originally posted by Mongoose
Well, under the "Programming tools" section on the InnovationFirst documentation site, a disabled link to the PBasic 2.5 editor is already there. I presume they will also release a new manual? There's also a link saying "RoboEmu" to rbayer's software page. When did that get there?

I was wondering when somebody was going to notice that . I asked InnovationFirst to put that there, and they graciously agreed. It means my webserver has gotten more traffic in the last 24 hours than in the last 6 months combined, but at least RoboEmu is getting some good publicity.