On Thu, 29 Jun 2000 17:06:53 +0200, "Peter Novak" <pno at whitestein.com>
wrote:

> I am saying the same. At the University we are starting to work on
> autonomous mobile robots and we are thinking about using embeded Squeak for
> driving it. PIC/Smalltalk would be great alternative! Please give it to
> public. I would like to see how it works and maybe use it.

Peter,

There's really not much comparison between Squeak and PIC/Smalltalk.
Squeak is a real Smalltalk, and PIC/Smalltalk is just a macro
assembler. If you need to use PICs, then it works nicely, but
personally I wouldn't want to write autonomous control software in it.

Real-time control software is another matter -- it does great at that
level of stuff.

Right now it only writes code for 16F84, and has no built-in support
for any of the advanced PIC chips on the market (like the 16F87x
family). I have a big wish-list of changes I want to make to it, but
right now my priorities are building MicroSeeker, not working on
PIC/Smalltalk.

I suspect that after I get the first version of MicroSeeker working
sometime this summer, I will start working on a new better version of
PIC/Smalltalk. But in the meantime I will probably port the
development system to Squeak and stick it out on the net, with big
disclaimers. Programming 8 bit RISC micro-controllers is a black art,
and I don't want to get a thousand emails asking how to make
PIC/Smalltalk communicate with some serial device or drive stepper
motors or whatever...

Hell, I still get about 5-10 emails per week about projects I did on
my Jeep three years ago :-)

Later,
Jon

--------------------------------------------------------------
   Jon Hylands      Jon at huv.com      http://www.huv.com/jon

  Project: Micro Seeker (Micro Autonomous Underwater Vehicle)
           http://www.huv.com