Lego Compiler

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Lego Compiler

• Department of Computer Science
• University of Joensuu, Finland

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Main idea

• How children could learn programming easily?
• Lego Robotics makes programming concrete and
  interesting
• Programming languages for Lego Robots are very
  complicated
• Languages are usually similar to English
• A programmer has to learn a syntax before he can
  learn programming

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Existing systems

• NQC (Not Quite C)
• quite similar to C gt complex for the first
  programming language
• drag-n-drop systems
• programmer can not see his program with real
  commands

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How Lego Compiler works

• Create a robot and start a program
• Initialize the robot to program (Picture 1)

Picture 1 initialization
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How Lego Compiler works

• Create commands to your robot (Pictures 2 and 3)

Picture 2 Toolbar
Picture 3 Create a command
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How Lego Compiler works

• Create so many commands as you want
• Make a program
• select command you want to use
• click Lisää ohjelmaan

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How Lego Compiler works

• Lego Compiler create your program to code window
• When program is ready click Vie robottiin
• Compiler sends a program to RCX-unit

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Further development

• Testing (main function)
• Making user interface easier to use
• Adding some new types of equipments (e.g.
  rotation sensor)
• Syntax highlighting
• Possibility to edit code as a text