INTRODUCTION TO BRICXCC AND NXC PROGRAMMING in Font

Encoder PDF-417 2d barcode in Font INTRODUCTION TO BRICXCC AND NXC PROGRAMMING

program in the same Compile menu. If you ever feel lost, just hover the mouse on a toolbar icon to get the pop-up tip, or consult the BricxCC online guide. I leave to you the exercise of opening an existing file, because it is a simple activity. What s been discussed up until now should be enough to open, compile, and download to the NXT any program that comes with this book.

Now you ll take just a fleeting glance at the text editing capabilities of the BricxCC IDE. I ll introduce briefly the menu items, starting from the left. Remember that almost any function is also reachable from the toolbar buttons. File menu: From here, you can create, open, save, save as, or close the files. BricxCC also allows you to print your listings. At the bottom of the menu, you can find the handy list of recently opened files. Edit menu: As in any text editor, here you find the undo and redo functions, as well as the cut, copy, and paste ones. The Copy special feature allows you to copy not just the text, but also the formatting, including fonts, colors, and bold and italic shaping. You use the Next field function (F10) to highlight the next text inside quotation marks. You can use this feature together with the Templates (F9) to speed up the program writing. Double-clicking an item in the template panel puts the corresponding skeleton code into your file. For example, by double-clicking the Programs Task item from the Template panel, you get the skeleton code of a task. Also, pressing F10 highlights the name and body fields, to replace the code promptly. Finally, you can open the Preferences panel from the Edit menu. Search menu: From here, you can find and replace text in your program (as you would do in any other text editor). Also, you can go to a precise line number or open the procedure list. View menu: You use this menu to toggle the visibility of all the panels and toolbars of the IDE. A useful window is the Code/Error listing (F12). Here, you can see the translated assembly code of your compiled program (if successfully compiled) or the exact lines where the compiler found errors, if any. Compile menu: I already described this menu earlier. From here, you can compile, download, start, and stop your program. Tools menu: This menu is worth the whole next section. Window menu: Here, you can arrange the subwindows, and even save and load their position. Help menu: From here, you can open the online guide; the old NQC guide; the About box; and the official BricxCC web page, where you can get updates, samples, and documents.

The tools are what make the BricxCC IDE so special and precious. The tools for the NXT are made by John Hansen, so thanks to him again! Many utilities are provided, so let s see them in order: Direct Control: Here, you can turn motors on and off in both directions at any speed. This utility is meant to be used for debugging purposes. You use the Sensors dialog to set the sensors type and mode of working. Diagnostics: This utility tells you all information available about the NXT connected: the firmware version, the battery voltage, the way the NXT is connected to the PC (USB or Bluetooth), its name, its Bluetooth address (remember the preceding procedure ), the free amount of memory in bytes, and so on. Watching the Brick: This utility is a fully comprehensive dialog from which you can get information about the NXT sensor readings, the servomotor parameters, messages, and more. You can even trace graphs of a monitored event! Brick Piano: The musicians among you can use this tool to write melodies for any programmable brick and export the code to play the tune just composed. Joystick: With this tool, you can control a differential drive robot (such as Tribot, JohnNXT, or the Turtle of this book). You can also drive a steering vehicle around, with one motor driving the wheels and the other turning the steering. Configurable Watch: This tool has a similar function to the Watching the Brick panel, except that you have to manually add the monitors of the chosen sources. NXT Explorer: This tool is a file browser for the NXT flash memory. Here, you can manage the files, upload and download them, delete them to free space, and even defragment the memory. From here, you can play a selected sound file, or you can start a compiled program (with the RXE extension). NXT Screen: This utility allows you to visualize and capture the content of the NXT screen on your PC. It is useful for having a look at an unreachable NXT screen, or for pressing the NXT buttons remotely. MIDI Conversion and Sound Conversion: These tools are used to convert a MIDI file or a WAV file into a piece of code or into an RSO file, respectively. Before converting a WAV file, you should resample it to get a mono (only one channel), 8-bit 8KHz file. You can compress the RSO file to save space on the NXT, but only firmware 1.05 or later can read it. Find Brick/Turn Brick Off/Close Communication: The functionality of these items is selfexplanatory. Find Brick opens the startup panel where you can choose how to connect the NXT, while Close Communication releases the connection and corresponding drivers. You can guess what the Turn Brick Off function does.