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| <H2>NQC FAQ</H2> |
| <H3>General</H3> |
| <UL> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#nqc">What is |
| NQC?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#mindstorms">What |
| is LEGO MINDSTORMS?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#RIS2">Does NQC |
| support RIS 2.0?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#firmware">How can |
| I get the RCX 2.0 firmware?</A> </LI></UL> |
| <H3>NQC Compiler Usage</H3> |
| <UL> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#dos">I'm using |
| Windows, and when I click on NQC a window with some text flashes on the screen |
| then disappears. What's going on?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#-Trcx2">I'm using |
| the RCX 2.0 firmware but get errors when trying to call 2.0 functions (e.g. |
| SetUserDisplay). What's wrong?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#errors">How can I |
| redirect errors to a file?</A> |
| <LI><A |
| href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#spiritinstall">Where is |
| Spirit.ocx? RcxCC complains that it is not installed.</A> </LI></UL> |
| <H3>IR Communication</H3> |
| <UL> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#usb">How do I get |
| NQC to work with my USB IR tower?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#control">How do I |
| use a computer to control the RCX?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#irusb">How do I |
| use the IR tower with a USB Macintosh?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#irdebug">Help, |
| RcxCC/MacNQC/NQC can't communicate with my RCX!</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#irlaptop">How do I |
| use my computer IR port with the RCX?</A> |
| <LI><A href="file:///Users/dave/WebSite/nqc/doc/faq.html#irxp">How can I get |
| the USB IR tower to work under Win XP?</A> </LI></UL> |
| <H3>Miscellaneous</H3> |
| <UL> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#spirit">Why |
| doesn't NQC use the Spirit OCX?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#vision">Does NQC |
| support Vision Command?</A> |
| <LI><A href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#build">What |
| computers/tools/etc do you use to develop NQC?</A> </LI></UL> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=nqc></A>What is NQC?</H3> |
| <P>NQC (Not Quite C) is a programming language for several LEGO MINDSTORMS |
| products including the RCX, CyberMaster, and Scout. NQC's syntax is very similar |
| to the C programming langauge, so experienced C programmers (and Java |
| programmers) should find it very easy to get started with. Even if you aren't an |
| experienced programmer, NQC is relatively easy to learn.</P> |
| <P>The two primary reasons people move up to NQC from the standard tools (RCX |
| Code and Robolab) is that NQC is a textual langauge, and it is more powerful. |
| Graphical languages are often easier to learn (no syntax errors!) but are |
| generally more tedious to use than a textual langauge. The graphical metaphors |
| of RCX Code (and to a certain extent Robolab) also significantly limit the types |
| of programs you can write.</P> |
| <P>NQC uses the same firmware as LEGO's standard tools (RCX Code and Robolab). |
| This means it is possible to have RCX Code, Robolab, and NQC programs loaded |
| onto the RCX at the same time. NQC also benefits from the stability and user |
| interface (e.g. the View button) provided by the standard firmware. On the minus |
| side, NQC must live within the constraints of the standard firmware. For |
| example, since the firmware does not provide floating point support, NQC cannot |
| provide it either. Other altermatives for programming the RCX (notably legOS and |
| pbForth) do not have such restrictions.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=mindstorms></A>What is LEGO MINDSTORMS?</H3> |
| <P>LEGO MINDSTORMS is a series of LEGO sets that use special programmable bricks |
| to allow construction of robots. The most versatile programmable brick is the |
| RCX, which can be found in the Robotics Invention System set. A simpler brick, |
| the Scout, can be found in the Robotics Discovery set. The simplest brick, Micro |
| Scout, is featured in two sets with a Star Wars theme: Droid Developer Kit, and |
| Dark Side Developer Kit. Even though it is the most expensive, the RCX based set |
| is still the best value due to the versatility of the RCX itself. The Scout is a |
| bit more limited, but still can be programmed (using NQC) to do some interesting |
| things. The Micro-Scout is extremely limited, and it useful mainly as an |
| accessory to another programmable brick such as the RCX or Scout. Further |
| information on MINDSTORMS sets can be found at the official site: <A |
| href="http://www.legomindstorms.com/" |
| target=_blank>http://www.legomindstorms.com/</A>.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=RIS2></A>Does NQC Support RIS 2.0?</H3> |
| <P>The RCX in the RIS 2.0 is nearly identical to the 1.0 RCX. However, new |
| firmware is used to give the RCX some new capabilities. Fortunately for existing |
| RCX owners, this firmware is available for download from www.legomindstorms.com |
| (as part of the RIS 2.0 SDK). NQC supports this new firmware (see <A |
| href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#-Trcx2">here for more |
| info</A>).</P> |
| <P>RIS 2.0 also uses a new IR tower with a USB connection (instead of the |
| eariler RS-232 based towers). Support for the USB tower under Windows and Mac OS |
| X is currently in <A |
| href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/beta/index.html">beta test</A>. Support |
| for Mac OS 9 will be added shortly and several other people are working on Linux |
| support.</P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| <A name=firmware></A>How can I get the RCX 2.0 firmware?</H3> |
| <P>The RCX 2.0 firmware is contained in a file named FIRM0328.LGO and is |
| installed on your PC when you install the standard LEGO software. It is also |
| installed as part of the Vision Command software and the 2.0 SDK.</P> |
| <P>Unfortunately, all previously mentioned sources for the firmware require |
| software to be installed on a Windows computer. If you are using a different |
| operating system, then you will need to download the earlier Beta version of the |
| 2.0 SDK which was packaged as a .zip file rather than a full installer. This |
| .zip file may then be expanded to get the FIRM0328.LGO file. The SDK 2.0 Beta |
| can be found at <A href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/sdk2beta/default.asp" |
| target=_blank>http://mindstorms.lego.com/sdk2beta/default.asp</A>.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=dos></A>I'm using Windows, and when I click on NQC a window with |
| some text flashes on the screen then disappears. What's going on?</H3> |
| <P>NQC is a command line based tool - normally you run it by typing an |
| appropriate command into an MS-DOS window. When you double-click the exe file it |
| launches an MS-DOS console, runs NQC within it, then since NQC finishes almost |
| immediately, the entire window disappears.</P> |
| <P>Some people prefer command line based tools because they allow you to use the |
| text editor of your choice, etc. It also makes for identical behavior under |
| Windows, Mac, and Linux. In order to use the command line version of NQC you'll |
| need to do two things:</P> |
| <P>1) Use some sort of text editor (such as Notepad) to edit and save a source |
| file for NQC to compile.</P> |
| <P>2) From an MS-DOS window type the appropriate NQC command. Its usually best |
| to either put all of your programs and nqc.exe in the same directory, or make |
| sure the directory containing NQC is in your command path. For example, to |
| compile and download the program "test.nqc" using the default serial port you |
| would type the following command:</P> |
| <P>nqc -d test.nqc</P> |
| <P>An alternative is to use the <A href="http://www.cs.uu.nl/~markov/lego/" |
| target=_parent>RCX Command Center</A> by Mark Overmars, which is a familiar |
| Windows style application that provides a front end to the NQC compiler.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=-Trcx2></A>I'm using the RCX 2.0 firmware but get errors when trying |
| to call 2.0 functions (e.g. SetUserDisplay). What's wrong?</H3> |
| <P>When NQC compiles a program it needs to know what kind of programmable brick |
| you want it to generate code for (this is called the <I>target</I> for the |
| compile). By default, NQC assumes you are targetting RCX 1.0. If you want to use |
| RCX 2.0 features, you need to tell the compiler you are using an RCX 2.0 target. |
| If you are using a command line version of NQC, then add <TT>-Trcx2</TT> to the |
| command line:</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -Trcx2 -d foo.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P>If you don't want to type <TT>-Trcx2</TT> all the time, then just use the |
| environment variable <TT>NQC_OPTIONS</TT> - NQC reads this environment variable |
| and inserts any options in this variable at the front of the command line. For |
| example, if <TT>NQC_OPTIONS</TT> was set to <TT>-Trcx2</TT> and you issued the |
| following command</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -d foo.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P>NQC would behave as if you actually typed</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -Trcx2 -d foo.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P>The specifics of setting environment variables depends on your operating |
| system and shell. For example, under Windows you could type the following in a |
| command shell:</P> |
| <P><TT>set NQC_OPTIONS=-Trcx2</TT></P> |
| <P>If you want to always use RCX 2.0, then you can make this setting permament |
| by editing the AUTOEXEC.BAT file and adding the above command to the end of the |
| file. This way, the variable will get set every time Windows is started.</P> |
| <P>If you are using a GUI based version of NQC (such as MacNQC), then there |
| should be some preference setting for the target - just make sure it is set to |
| "RCX 2.0". Unfortunately, RcxCC does not have an "RCX 2.0" setting, but there is |
| a workaround. Leave the target as "RCX" (which means RcxCC won't specify any |
| target information and just rely on the fact that NQC defaults to RCX), then use |
| the <TT>NQC_OPTIONS</TT> environment variable to specify RCX 2.0 (as described |
| above).</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=errors></A>How can I redirect errors to a file?</H3> |
| <P>Compile errors are written to stderr, not stdout. This is to allow the |
| calling program to separate errors from the program listing (-l option) that |
| appears on stdout. The normal redirection facility of a shell only redirects |
| stdout, thus the errors will still be printed to the screen. Most shells have |
| additional syntax that allows the stderr stream to be redirected (use |
| "option->" in MPW, or "2>" for WinNT). I do not know of any mechanism to |
| redirect stderr in Win95 command.com.</P> |
| <P>In addition, nqcc now supports (verion 1.1 b1) the ability to route error |
| messages to stdout with the -E option.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=spiritinstall></A>Where is Spirit.ocx? RcxCC complains that it is |
| not installed.</H3> |
| <P>NQC has never used Spirit.ocx, but RcxCC used to require Spirit.ocx for |
| communication with the RCX. Lego no longer supports Spirit.ocx as of RIS 2.0, |
| but fortunately RcxCC has been updated to no longer require it. In addition, |
| RcxCC has been renamed to BricxCC (due to trademark concerns from Lego). You can |
| download the latest version of BricxCC <A |
| href="http://members.aol.com/johnbinder/bricxcc.htm" target=_blank>here</A>.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=usb></A>How do I get NQC to work with my USB IR tower?</H3> |
| <P>Presently, USB towers are only supported under Mac OS X and Windows. I will |
| be releasing Mac OS 9 support shortly. Some other developers are working on a |
| Linux solution.</P> |
| <P>USB support is in beta test and requires version 2.4a4 of NQC.</P> |
| <P><B>IMPORTANT</B>- you need to tell NQC that you want it to look for a USB |
| tower, otherwise it assumes you have a serial tower and uses the default serial |
| port for your operating system (e.g. COM1 under Windows). Add <TT>-Susb</TT> to |
| the command line or set the <TT>RCX_PORT</TT> environment variable to |
| <TT>usb</TT>. When adding a command line option, put it near the beginning of |
| the command:</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -Susb -d test.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P><B>Windows only:</B> NQC uses the USB driver installed by the Lego RIS 2.0 |
| software, so you will need to install the RIS software and run it once with the |
| USB tower connected in order for the driver to be correctly installed.</P> |
| <P><B>Mac OS X only:</B> NQC talks directly to the USB tower. There is no |
| driver, so you'll never see the tower show up in /dev.<BR></P> |
| <P><SPAN style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">FreeBSD (unoffical port):</SPAN> As of NQC |
| 2.5 a5, the USB tower is supported when running a FreeBSD build from 02/28/03 or |
| later (the upcoming FreeBSD 5.1 will work).<BR></P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=control></A>How do I use a computer to control the RCX?</H3> |
| <P>There are two basic ways to do this: send raw commands to the RCX, or send |
| 'messages' which are then listened to by a program running on the RCX.</P> |
| <H4>Sending Messages</H4> |
| <P>This is generally the simplest way to interact with the RCX. First you write |
| a program for the RCX that continuously checks for received messages (using the |
| Message() and ClearMessage() calls) and then dispatches the messages |
| accordingly. The messages may have any value between 1 and 255. There is no |
| predefined meaning for these messages - your program can do whatever it wants |
| with each message.</P> |
| <P>There are several ways to send the message. You can use another RCX (or a |
| Scout) by calling the SendMessage() function. You can also use the nqc command |
| with the -msg option, for example to send message #3:</P> |
| <P>nqc -msg 3</P> |
| <P>You can use the LEGO remote control to send messages 1, 2, or 3. It is also |
| possible to send the message by sending the appropriate command packet (see |
| below)</P> |
| <H4>Sending Raw Commands</H4> |
| <P>Sending raw commands gives you complete control over the RCX. The commands |
| (a.k.a. opcodes or bytecodes) and the general packet format are unofficially |
| documented at <A href="http://graphics.stanford.edu/~kekoa/rcx/" |
| target=_parent>http://graphics.stanford.edu/~kekoa/rcx/</A>. For example, to |
| make the RCX play system sound #3 (upward tones), you would send a two-byte |
| command (shown in hex):</P> |
| <P>51 03</P> |
| <P>Messages are just a specific type of command - F7 followed by the message |
| value, so message #4 would be the packet</P> |
| <P>F7 04</P> |
| <P>If you are using NQC, you can let NQC take care of all the details of packet |
| formatting, getting an acknowledgement from the RCX, and retrying if a failure |
| occurs. You do this with the -raw option, which takes a single parameter listing |
| all of the bytes (in hex format) for the command:</P> |
| <P>nqc -raw 5103</P> |
| <P>If you are writing your own program, you can build up the packet yourself. A |
| suitable packet (for the plays sound command) would be:</P> |
| <P>55 ff 00 51 ae 03 fc 54 ab</P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| <A name=irusb></A>How do I use the IR tower with a USB Macintosh?</H3> |
| <P>Since a USB version of the IR tower doesn't exist (yet), you will need a USB |
| to serial converter (such as the Keyspan TWIN adapter). If the adapter provides |
| a 9-pin serial connector, then you should be able to use the standard Mindstorms |
| cable between the adapter and the IR tower. If the adapter provides mac-style |
| serial connector, then you will also need an appropriate cable as desribed <A |
| href="http://www.baumfamily.org/lego/macmind/cables.html">here</A>.</P> |
| <P><I>Note: I have heard several reports of the Palm USB adapter not working. I |
| am not sure if this is a problem with the adapter itself, or some unusual |
| interaction between it and the OS. If you have been able to use a Palm USB |
| adapter with MacNQC or NQC, please let me know. I would like to get a definitive |
| answer on whether this adapter can be made to work. Personally, I use the |
| Keyspan Twin adapter (USA-28X), and I've heard that both the Keyspan PDA adapter |
| (USA-19) and Xircom PortGear USB also work.</I></P> |
| <P>If you are using MacNQC, then the popup menu in the Preferences dialog box |
| will list all available serial ports (including those provided by USB |
| converters).</P> |
| <P>If you are using the MPW version of NQC, then you will need to specify the |
| serial port either on the command line (using the -S option) or in the RCX_PORT |
| environment variable. Both methods require that you know the name of the serial |
| port driver. The easiest way to make this work is to use the adapter's control |
| panel to configure the serial port to "emulate the printer port". This will |
| cause the serial port to be named "B", thus you could do either of the |
| following:</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -SB -d foo.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P>or</P> |
| <P><TT>set -e RCX_PORT B</TT></P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -d foo.nqc</TT></P> |
| <P>If you choose the second option, the <TT>set</TT> command only needs to be |
| executed once per MPW session - adding it to a Startup file will make life |
| simpler.</P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| <A name=irdebug></A>Help, RcxCC/MacNQC/NQC can't communicate with my RCX!</H3> |
| <P>In most cases, problems like this boil down to a configuration issue, bad |
| cable, or dead battery. Here are some troubleshooting tips.</P> |
| <P>If the program says it cannot open the serial port, then this is almost |
| certainly a configuration problem. For MacNQC, make sure you have a valid serial |
| port selected in the Preferences dialog box. For NQC, make sure you have |
| specified the appropriate serial port name (default is modem port, "B" is the |
| printer port, see <A |
| href="http://www.baumfamily.org/nqc_old/doc/faq.html#irusb">above</A> for USB |
| based macs). For RcxCC, I suggest trying once with auto-detection, and if that |
| fails, then manually set the serial port in the RcxCC program.</P> |
| <P>If the program reports that it cannot communicate with the IR device, then |
| either the program is talking to the wrong serial port (see the previous item), |
| or there's a problem with the cable and/or battery. Make sure you have a fresh |
| 9v battery installed in the IR tower, and if possible use the cable supplied by |
| Lego.</P> |
| <P>If the program reports that it cannot communicate with the RCX, then |
| communication with the IR tower is probably OK, and the problem is between the |
| tower and the RCX.</P> |
| <UL> |
| <LI>Certain light sources (bright sunlight, certain projection TVs) can cause |
| interference...try using a towel or other item to shield the IR tower and RCX |
| from other light. |
| <LI>The tower and RCX should be about 6 inches apart. Tty the switch on the |
| front of the tower in both positions - some people report better success with |
| "near" mode, and some with "far" mode. |
| <LI>Make sure you have firmware downloaded into the RCX. If the display only |
| shows "1" on it, then firmware isn't installed yet...download the firmware |
| using the Lego software or the -firmware option for NQC (the firmware itself |
| must be copied from the Lego CD or downloaded from <A |
| href="http://www.legomindstorms.com/" |
| target=_blank>http://www.legomindstorms.com/</A>). Once the firmware is |
| installed you should see something like "00.00 1" on the display. </LI></UL> |
| <P>If you have a terminal program (e.g. HyperTerminal for Windows, Zterm for the |
| Mac), then you can check the IR tower directly. Open up a session to the |
| appropriate serial port at 2400 baud, 1 stop bit, odd parity, and 8 data bits. |
| Turn off local echo. Start typing a few characters. A green LED on the front of |
| the IR tower should light up, and the characters you typed should be echoed back |
| to the screen (with an occasional mistake depending on how much interference |
| there is).</P> |
| <P>If you are using the command line version of NQC, then you can have it log |
| any serial communication. This is helpful in trying to isolate where |
| communication is failing. A good general-purpose test is</P> |
| <P><TT>nqc -v -raw 10</TT></P> |
| <P>Please include the output of this test in any e-mail to me regarding IR |
| communication problems.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <P></P> |
| <H3><A name=irlaptop></A>How do I use my computer IR port with the RCX?</H3> |
| <P>You can't. At least not easily.</P> |
| <P>Most computers use the IrDA protocols for IR communication. The RCX uses a |
| proprietary protocol developed by Lego for communication. Quite simply, these |
| protocols are incompatable.</P> |
| <H4>What about IrCom? Doesn't that let me use the IR port as a regular serial |
| port?</H4> |
| <P>Yes and no. From an application's point of view, IrCom looks like a serial |
| port (complete with hardware handshaking and control lines). However, the IrCom |
| layer actually resides on top of normal IrDA communication, so what appears to |
| the application to be async serial communication, is in fact a bunch of IrDA |
| packets getting sent back and forth. Since the RCX doesn't understand IrDA |
| packets, it can't understand IrCom either.</P> |
| <H4>What if I access the hardware directly?</H4> |
| <P>Even if you bypassed the IrDA protocol stacks on the computer and somehow |
| managed to control the hardware directly (a task that is likely to be different |
| for different computer vendors), it still may not be possible. The Lego |
| protocols encode bits using a 38kHz carrier frequency. This frequency is |
| generated an filtered in hardware. IrDA doesn't really use a carrier frequency, |
| and the actual specs on bit times provide a lot of lattitued to device |
| manufacturers. As a result, it is difficult to get generic IrDA hardware to |
| generate the required 38kHz carrier reliably. Filtering the recieve side is even |
| more problematic.</P> |
| <P>I would hesitate to say that this problem is "impossible" to solve, but |
| people have been asking about this for over a year, and to my knowledge no |
| general solution has emerged. There are, however, specialized solutions for |
| specific pieces of hardware (usually PDAs or other handled devices such as a |
| Palm III).<BR></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
| |
| <H3><A name=irxp></A>How can I get the USB IR tower to work under Win XP?</H3> |
| <P>There appear to be some timing related difficulties when using NQC with the |
| USB tower under Windows XP. If you are having difficulty downloading |
| programs, open the LEGO USB Tower control panel, select the Advanced Tab, and |
| set the Read Timeout to 300 msec. This generally fixes the |
| problem.<BR></P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| <A name=spirit></A>Why doesn't NQC use the Spirit OCX?</H3> |
| <P>The Spirit OCX is only available on the PC. My personal preference is to use |
| a Macintosh, so I needed to have a platform independent means for communicating |
| with the RCX.</P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| <A name=vision></A>Does NQC Support Vision Command?</H3> |
| <P>Vision command programs run in two places...all of the image processing |
| software runs on the PC, then sends messages to a program running on the RCX. |
| The messages that are sent are ordinary RCX messages, and by using Message() and |
| ClearMessage(), NQC programs can respond to them. Mike Gasperi calls this "<A |
| href="http://www.plazaearth.com/usr/gasperi/vcsensor.htm" target=_blank>Using |
| Vision Command as a Smart Sensor</A>".</P> |
| <P>Note that I have never tried this myself (Vision Command doesn't run on Mac), |
| so I can't really help if things don't work as expected.</P> |
| <H3> |
| <HR align=left> |
| </H3> |
| <H3><A name=build></A>What computers/tools/etc do you use to develop NQC?</H3> |
| <P>All of the NQC development takes place on my Macintosh PowerBook. I use |
| Metrowerks CodeWarrior to write and debug the code as a Macintosh |
| application.</P> |
| <P>The Code Warrior project also has targets to build the MPW version of NQC as |
| well as the Win32 version. Regression tests on the compiler are done on the PPC |
| version of the MPW tool (via a couple of MPW scripts and a bunch of sample |
| programs). Some minimal testing of the Win32 version is done from within Virtual |
| PC - I just make sure that the build went fine and that the serial port works |
| since that is really the only code custom to Win32.</P> |
| <P>For the source release, I boot into Mac OS X, copy over the NQC source tree |
| and build it (using make, gcc, etc). A simple test (again just to make sure the |
| serial port code for Unix is working) is performed. I then use a shell script to |
| create a source release tree, strip out any unwanted binaries, and package the |
| entire thing up as a .tar.gz. Recently, I've also been packaging up a Mac OS X |
| binary version.</P> |
| <P>So there you have it...development for Mac, Windows, and Unix all done on my |
| trusty PowerBook.</P> |
| <P></P> |
| <HR align=left> |
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