[NTLUG:Discuss] Lego Robots. (Was Symbolic Links)

[Stuart Yarus]

The Dallas Personal Robotics Group, <http://www.dprg.org>, has frequent 
competitions locally.  I don't think they have Lego-only contents, but hey, 
look 'em up.



At 07:06 PM 11/03/2000, you wrote:
>Richard Cobbe wrote:
>
> > > I've recently started playing with Lego Robotics.  I think that's an
> > > *EXCELLENT* training ground for programmers:
> > >
> > >   1) There is no simple way to debug a program - you have to resort to
> > >      flashing a light when your code gets to a certain place - or beeping
> > >      some number of times to indicate the value of a variable....or
> > >      perhaps you learn to write code that works first time!
> >
> > Well, good for teaching people the value of writing good code, but unless
> > you teach them HOW to write good code (i.e., derive programs mechanically
> > from your data definitions, and so forth), it doesn't do much except
> > provide frustration.
> >
> > Also, most architectures these days, even some embedded systems, will
> > provide you with source-level debuggers.  If you've got powerful tools like
> > that, use them.  Teaching debugging-by-LED is, I think, far less important
> > than it used to be.
>
>Actually - I think that teaching people to debug from by inferring the
>behaviour of the code from the symptoms alone is more important than ever.
>
>In the age of OpenSource code maintained via email, you are often faced
>with users who say:
>
>    "Your program goes 'bleep' twice and then crashes - what do I do?"
>
>...being able to infer the cause from minimal information seems more
>relevent than ever.
>
> > >   2) There is only a *tiny* amount of memory in a Lego Robot's computer.
> > >      You have to be efficient in space terms - 'yyp' programming is
> > >      definitely out of the question.
> >
> > True--although space concerns are not the only problem with cut-n-paste.
> > (For that matter, C++ inline functions will create the same space bloat).
> > In addition, I hesitate to start people off with a very limited memory
> > space: while memory concerns are certainly an issue for an important class
> > of programs, primarily embedded systems, it's becoming less and less
> > critical in general.  I've seen far too much ugly code produced by people
> > who are overly concerned about memory and speed requirements.
>
>Once again - I disagree.  Whilst computers (even embedded ones) have more
>memory than they used to, the disparity between CPU speed and bus/RAM
>speed is higher than ever before.  Writing tight code/data that fits into
>cache can result in spectacular speed improvements - even on machines
>with multi-gigabyte main memory.
>
> > The electrical engineering department at Rice used to run a class which was
> > basically playing with Lego robotics.  I never took the class, so I'm a
> > little short on details, but they used an in-house language and supplies to
> > make it work.  The robots had to solve a particular task, and they had a
> > big competition at the end of the semester.  It was a very hard, very
> > time-consuming class, but it was extremely popular, and not just among EE
> > majors.  (The prof who ran the thing is now at the University of
> > Washington, I think, so I don't know if they're still continuing the
> > class.)
>
>There are LOTS of Lego robotics competitions run all over the USA - but
>none that I know of in our area....perhaps there is a NTLUG opportunity here?
>
>--
>Steve Baker   HomeEmail: <sjbaker1 at airmail.net>
>               WorkEmail: <sjbaker at link.com>
>               HomePage : http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
>               Projects : http://plib.sourceforge.net
>                          http://tuxaqfh.sourceforge.net
>                          http://tuxkart.sourceforge.net
>                          http://prettypoly.sourceforge.net
>_______________________________________________
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Stuart Yarus
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