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In preparation for the 2013 Robotics Summer of Learning, we’ve released updates for the Palm Island (v2.1.0), Operation Reset (v3.1.0), Curriculum Companion (v2.4.0), and Level Builder (v2.0.11) Virtual Worlds!

In Palm Island, Operation Reset, and the Curriculum Companion, we’ve added two highly-requested features: Graphics Quality Control and Update Notifications.

Graphics Quality Control
In the Options section of each virtual world, we’ve added a new Graphics Quality setting. Choosing LOW (FASTER) will reduce the visual quality of the virtual environment, but will allow the virtual worlds to run more smoothly on older computers. MEDIUM is the default setting and is a balanced choice between quality and speed on most computers. Choosing HIGH (SLOWER) will improve the visual quality and is the most resource intensive; it is only recommended if you have a newer computer with a dedicated graphics card.

Update Notifications
If your computer is connected to the Internet and you log in using your CS2N account in the virtual world, it will now check if there is a newer version of the virtual world available. If an update is available, a notification about the new version appears with a DOWNLOAD NOW button. Simply press it to download the latest version available!

RVW Level Builder
We also updated the RVW Level Builder! We have improved the performance of the menus and fixed an issue where line tracking tiles were getting “stuck” once they were placed. Thank you to everyone who has sent in feedback! We’ve also released a series of videos to help get started with the Level Builder:

The updates can be downloaded from the RVW Level Packs Download area at ROBOTC.net or RobotVirtualWorlds.com.

We are very excited to announce that today is the first day of Spring and …. the first day of ROBOTC 3.60! ROBOTC is the premiere robotics programming language for educational robotics and competitions. ROBOTC is a C-Based Programming Language with an Easy-to-Use Development Environment. We are really proud of this release and can’t wait to hear what you think! Remember, we could not do this without your support and feedback. We hope you’ll continue to share your comments with us, either in the forums or on our Facebook or Twitter page.
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The ROBOTC team is happy to announce the ROBOTC 3.59.0 BETA release. We’ve made a number of enhancements and repaired a number of user issues. Some of the major updates are:

• Added support for proxy server when activating ROBOTC.
• Add watchdog timer support to VEX Cortex to alleviate processor crashes that can occur with static.
• Fixed a bug in the NXT color sensor that now allows you to read individual RGB values.
• Updated with the latest version of the 3^rd party sensor drivers for NXT. (Thanks Xander!)

See below for the more detailed changelog. You can download ROBOTC 3.59.0 here!

Remember, we could not do this without your support and feedback. We hope you’ll continue to share your comments with us, either in the forums or on our Facebook or Twitter page.

3.54 to 3.59 BETA Changelog

VEX:

• Add watchdog timer support to VEX Cortex. This will allow the VEX Cortex User Processor to “restart” automatically once the processor crashes/is halted. Useful for any potential static issue that may cause the User Processor to “crash”.
• Change watchdog implementation from “windowed” watchdog to standard watchdog (no window, reset any time). Increase watchdog timeout to 0.75 seconds.
• In Debugger Motors display the last motor was not always properly updated. Fixed.
• Enable emulator for VEX PIC. Fix subsequent bug with “Motors” debugger display for VEX PIC locking up IDE when emulator is enabled; this bug should be limited to VEX PIC Emulator only.
• VEX PIC downloading was failing when master firmware was out of date. Getting stuck in a repetitive loop that wasn’t exiting. Fixed.
• VEX PIC was not executing user programs. Bug was that “start of flash file system VTOC” needed to be aligned on 4-byte boundary. Previous change had added a 1-byte field to the header preamble and there was not a corresponding 3-byte file added for VEX PIC. ARM platforms worked OK. This may also have broken Arduino (i.e. any 8-bit) platform).
• Added a Conditional Compile flag for tUARTs to avoid confusion between uartOne and UART1
• There are two separate flags for “allow any serial port for communications” — one for VEX Cortex and one for all other platforms. This was not obvious. Preferences “Environment” tab was only updating flag for non-Cortex; this has been changed to update the appropriate flag based on platform setting. The VEX Cortex flag can also be updated in the “VEX Cortex” tab.
• User configurable UART setup was screwed up for the platforms whose “uart 0″ is fixed as non-configurable and usable only for system communications port to PC — i.e. VEX Cortex, VEX PIC. The ROBOTC IDE was storing the data in the persistent data table (at start of flash file system) offset by one entry. I.E. data for “uart 1″ on VEX Cortex was stored in “uart 2″, etc.

LEGO:

• NXT color sensor read RGB individual values broken with pointer implementation. Change “getMemoryParmXXX” function calls to “getCommonParamaterValueXXX” function calls. Check rest of firmware for same mistake.
• New feature for 3^rd Party Sensor Driver Suite to set the two digital I/O lines on NXT sensors. Added two new sensor types (sensorCustom, sensorCustom9V) for this along with two new property intrinsic variables to set I/O line direction and values; these intrinsic variables are bit masks (2-bits) for the two lines.
• “setPixel” intrinsic (and corresponding “clearPixel” and “invertPixel”) take “unsigned” parameters. But implementation was using “signed” parameters and not properly range checking if parameters were negative. If negative, then should do nothing. Instead they were incorrectly wring to invalid buffer address which eventually caused a firmware crash.

Arduino:

• Fix issue for “Motors” tab for Arduino in “Motors and Sensors Setup” property sheet. Was incorrectly trying to setup “encoder information for motor”, but Arduino platform does not “associate encoder sensor with motor” — which is currently only a feature for VEX Cortex.

General:

• Added Support for Proxy Server when activating ROBOTC – Users can set Proxy preferences under “Detailed Preferences – General – Environment”.
• Incorrect generation of compiler error message when double pointer (i.e. “**”) is used.
• “Print” a range of pages was not working when the starting page was not ’1′. Fixed.
• Remove incorrect error message from error “Assignment between two different pointer types” when one side of ‘=’ is a ‘void *’.
• Compiler was incorrectly generating error message for “Expected a pointer expression in a pointer expression with ‘++’ or ‘-+’ operand. Compiler was incorrectly checking to verify the right operand was an integer value.
• Compiler was incorrectly generating error message for “Invalid pointer expression” in a pointer expression with ‘+’ or ‘-’ operand. One operand of the expression must be a pointer and the other operand must be an integer (without implied conversion of a pointer to an integer). Compiler was incorrectly checking for the integer — the expression incorrectly had a “!” in it!
• Change code generation of ‘var arg’ for pointers to be consistent with standard C — i.e. the value of the pointer is placed in the argument. This may result in an additional instruction generated when argument is a ‘string’; previously RobotC got too cute trying to save this extra instruction which only worked for “%s” format codes but was broken for “%d” on a pointer.
• In ‘sprintf” implementation for “%s” and “%p” format codes– change from  “get Address of parameter” to”get value of parameter” to match corresponding change in compiler code. Also minor cleanup of “%s” and “%p” format codes.
• Assignment expressions of “<char * variable> = <char constant> were generating compiler error because the “<char constant>” was evaluated as a “string” type. Added code in “get expression type” to check for this and not generate error as the compiler auto converts “string” to “char *” during code generation.
• Fixes an issue with the Live Start Page and “check for updates” that may have caused crashes.
• Improved validation of pointer expressions. Fix bug in calculating expression type of pointer expressions like “<ptr sub-expression> + <numeric constant>”; the result was (always?) incorrectly set as “long *”? Also added check that “=” of pointer is from a pointer of the same type – otherwise generate error message.
• Fixed consistency in implementation of “random” intrinsic property.
• Eliminate compiler error message in constant expression evaluation of sub-expressions using “*” operator. If either of the two operands is ‘zero’ then result is zero regardless of whether the other operand is a compile time constant.
• Do not generate additional errors — “too many parameters” specified — when procedure is “compiler generated undefined symbol”.
• When switch between “real robots” and “emulator”, the function that calculates “size of RAM pointer variable” was not being called. It adjusts between 2-byte (VEX PIC, Arduino) and 4-byte (Emulator, VEX Cortex, NXT) pointer sizes. No issue with VEX Cortex and NXT as they only use 4-byte pointers. But a problem with VEX PIC and Arduino where real robots use 2-byte RAM pointers! Added the appropriate call to function setup.
• Small code optimization for “postfix –”/postfix ++” operators to avoid temporary. In some cases they can be simplified to prefix operands.
• Incorrect initialization of static variables in “inner scope” for local procedure. They were initialized every time inner scope block was accessed rather than once on program startup.
• Debugger Panes for “Locals” and “Globals” (especially Globals) was not properly handling updates to ‘long’ and ‘float’ variables. Globals was completely broke — only lower two bytes of 4-byte variables was being updated which broke ‘long’ and ‘float’ variables. In both, ‘char’ variables were updating a short value — i.e. overwriting following characters.
• Fix problem with incorrect user code using a “short” variable and “sprintf” format code of “%f”. This can crash ROBOTC VM firmware if the short variable is not aligned on a 32-bit boundary.
• Add additional entries for StringFind for Character Constants and added test program.
• Redefine datalog opcodes and intrinsics. Legacy datalog incompatible with 3.5x VM operands which split memory variables and intrinsic properties into separate items.
• Firmware for all platforms now call “datalogHandlerInit()”. Conditional compile will define as NULL macro if a platform does not support Datalog. Datalog support is now conditionally compiled via “bHasDatalog” define rather than hard-coded as NXT only.
• Fix incorrect compiler type checking error when string constant is assigned to a char pointer.
• Fix bug in check for “is this a preprocessor string comparison expression”.
• Eliminate preprocessor string comparisons in Natural Language and replace with “defined(_Target_XXX_) where “_Target_XXX_” are three new system defined preprocessor variables — “_target_Robot_”, “_Target_Emulator_” and “Target_VirtWorld_”. Sample programs modified appropriately. Legacy user programs using legacy definitions will still work but will generate a compiler warning about non-standard extension.
• Add registry flag to enable compiler extension to allow preprocessor expressions support for string comparisons. Generate compiler error message if encountered without the flag being set.
• “cast” code generation fix. Previously when cast changed sign of result the ‘cast’ was applied before expression was converted to ‘int’ size used during a calculation. So casting a “ubyte” to “int” incorrectly converted it to a “signed char”. What should happen is “ubyte” expression gets evaluated into an “int” as part of expression evaluation (all expressions are evaluated at ‘int’ (or higher) level in “C”) and then the cast to “int” has no additional effect.
• Function to extract numeric “COMxxx”. Expanded syntax to support successful parsing of “(COM99)” previously would not accept extraneous characters.
• Add improved Dialog for selecting Communications Port. It uses a list box to display information about the port. Add check box to select any communications port.
• Compiler crash when parsing invalid syntax of ‘?’ expression. Compiler was not handling the case when “NULL” pointer returned from parsing sub-expression. The “NULL” was incorrect.

The RVW team is excited to announce our latest update to the RVW Level Builder, which allows you to create, share, and solve your own virtual challenges! Download it here! This update includes a long list of new features and improvements, and you’ll discover the biggest change when you select the new IMPORT button in Build mode:

Pressing the IMPORT button will launch the RVW Model Importer. Until now, your challenges have been limited to the objects that we’ve prepackaged with the Level Builder. With the Model Importer, you can import any object that you’ve created in SolidWorks or Autodesk Inventor (saved as .STL files) and use them in your virtual challenges. Check out this video for a quick overview:

The Model Importer is an extremely powerful and versatile tool. Once you import your object, you can customize its level of detail, color, scale, mass, and many other properties that affect how it will behave in the 3D Virtual world.

Once you’ve imported an object and set its properties, you can use it in your virtual challenges, just like any of the included objects.

To support you as work with the Level Builder and Model Importer, we’ve created a series of 6 short tutorial videos that teach you everything that you need to know:

Don’t have Inventor or SolidWorks installed on your computer? An educational license of Autodesk Inventor is available for free to students and teachers and Solidworks offers a 60-day free trial for educators. If you’d like to try out the Model Importer right away, here is a .ZIP file you can download that contains a few models you can use: Sample Model Importer Files.

Other changes to the RVW Level Builder include:

• The new default directory for your levels is in your Documents folder, making it easier to share your files
• New robot models with improved graphics, physics, and performance
• The ability to view your levels in 3D in Build mode (right-click your mouse and drag to activate)
• Lots of small fixes and performance improvements

As always, we would love to hear your feedback! Share it on our Facebook page, here on the blog, or the ROBOTC.net forums.

Written by Ryan Cahoon and Jesse Flot

The Robot Virtual World team is thrilled to announce their latest level pack:  Robots to the Rescue – Operation Reset.

Robots to the Rescue – Operation Reset is the third version of our virtual world set in a crystal mining colony on Planet H99. An intergalactic storm has knocked out all of the systems in the colony, and it’s up to you to program the colony’s robots to restore power to Communication Towers, collect the Unobtanium energy crystals, and refuel the rocket. In game testing, some of the things middle and high school kids said were “It’s fun!”, “It’s like a video game!”, “I like that I get to see my code work immediately.”, and “I like the story behind the missions.”.

Operation Reset represents several months of hard work on new features and huge improvements to the Robot Virtual World technology. Here’s sneak peak of some of them:

Updated robot models with attachments:
Programmers will enjoy more interactivity with the world than ever before. Our Mammalbot (right) and Buggybot (left) robots are both included, and each have a Gripper and Vacuum attachment for delivering fuel barrels and collecting Unobtanium fuel crystals.

In-Game Tutorials:
When starting the first set of missions, players are presented with slideshow-style tutorials that explain the mission ahead and direct them to sample ROBOTC code they can use. All of the missions are designed to be solvable using either Standard ROBOTC or the Natural Language, so new and experienced programmers alike will enjoy solving the them.

Multiple Starting Points and Remote Control Zones
As players recharge the Communication Towers in the colony, they will unlock additional Mission Insertion points in the world. These insertion points allow the programmer to have consistent starting points as they write code to solve missions. Also, when a Communication Tower is recharged, direct robot control (using keyboard keys) in the nearby zone is unlocked, allowing you to remotely control the robot’s movements. Insertion points and remote control zones are displayed using the in-game Dashboard, which updates to reflect player progress.

Advanced User Interface
The brand new user interface conveys tons of information while taking up a minimal amount of screen space. As players complete missions, the “bubbles” corresponding to Communication Towers, Unobtanium Crystals and Fuel Barrels will be colored in. You can also switch between the Vacuum and Gripper attachments on the robot, change starting locations, and view recent in-game messages.

New Interactive Game Elements
As the robot travels through the mining colony, it will interact with new Bi-Directional Boost Pads (top) and Robot Lifts (bottom). Both elements will re-situate the robot in the world, providing consistency each time you run your code.

CS2N Achievements
When the robot completes missions or interacts with different in-game elements, the programmer will be rewarded with achievements. Users can create a Local account or use their CS2N account to track their progress and view their achievements. If you don’t already have a CS2N account, you create one for free, here: https://www.cs2n.org/signup

Gameplay Media and Support Material at RobotVirtualWorlds.com
We really want to make sure you know all of the support material that has been created to go along with Operation Reset. We’ve generated Getting Started Guides, Lesson Plans, and Programming Rubrics that will help you use the Robot Virtual World software in the classroom. The full set of materials can be found at http://www.robotvirtualworlds.com/ under Getting Started. Check out the site to find Gameplay videos, Mission Overview videos, World Maps, and more!

To download the Operation Reset virtual world, visit https://www.cs2n.org/activities/robot-virtual-worlds/operation-reset (log in with your CS2N account to view the download link) or http://www.robotvirtualworlds.com/. We value your feedback! Post any thoughts or ideas you have about Operation Reset at the ROBOTC.net forums.

Using Operation Reset requires a ROBOTC 3.x license. If you’re still using ROBOTC 2.x, check out our special promotional pricing available through the end of the year.

The Robot Virtual World team has a fresh round of updates available for you. We’ve listened to your feedback and have made some changes to our Curriculum Companion, Sack Attack, and Ring It Up virtual worlds. Read on for more details!

What’s new in the Curriculum Companion 2.2.4:

• Adjusted the NXT – Obstacle Course table to more closely meet the level specifications
• Adjusted the VEX – Robo Slalom 2 table to give more room between the lines and obstacles
• Adjusted the Camera 2 View of the VEX – Minefield Retrieval Challenge

What’s new in VEX Sack Attack 1.5.1:

• Resolved a bug where motor values were being overwritten

What’s new in Ring It Up 1.5.1:

• Resolved a bug where motor values were being overwritten
• Adjusted robot models to drive straighter
• Adjusted sensor and encoder behavior
• Improved the gripper-ring interaction behavior

Thanks again for the feedback, and keep it coming. You can post it to the Robot Virtual Worlds section of the ROBOTC Forums.

Following up from an earlier post, new versions of the FTC Ring It Up and VEX Sack Attack Virtual Worlds are now available!

In version 1.50 of Ring It Up, all arm, wrist, and gripper motors now include encoders, allowing you to get feedback and implement precise control over the robots. We’ve also swapped the Compass Sensor for the Gyroscope, which was highly requested by FTC teams. New Sample code  for the encoders and gyroscope is installed with the world.

 

In version 1.50 of Sack Attack, we’ve added encoders to the arm motors on all of the robots, and a potentiometer to the scooper motor on Scooperbot, giving you very precise control. All robot models have also had the Compass sensor replaced with a Gyroscope, better aligning them with the real world VEX system. As with the Ring It Up world, Sample code for all of the new functionality is included.

We genuinely appreciate all of the feedback and comments we’ve received about these worlds, and we hope that these changes show that we’re listening. Keep the feedback coming!

Adding support for all of the new inputs required a significant update of our back end, so these versions require ROBOTC 3.54 or later to be installed. Happy programming!

The ROBOTC development team is happy to announce the release of ROBOTC 3.54. This new version adds a number of new features and numerous bug fixes from user reports. Existing ROBOTC 3.xx users can download a free update from inside of the ROBOTC software (Help – Check for Updates) or from the ROBOTC.net website.

In addition to ROBOTC 3.54, the ROBOTC Development team is excited to announce support for PID with the VEX Cortex system (using motors with integrated motor encoders). The new VEX PID functionality will be available in a public BETA to be released in the very near future.

The latest update to ROBOTC also includes a number of new features for Robot Virtual Worlds. The new update includes new support many more motors, encoders and sensors. Look for an update for your favorite virtual worlds in the near future to take advantage of this great new functionality.

A summary of the major changes are below:

LEGO/TETRIX:

• Support for MATRIX Robotics “Move to Encoder” in NXT firmware using the nMotorEncoderTarget functionality.
• Fix TETRIX motor control. “Move to encoder position” functionality was not working correctly.
• New functionality for I2C test program to optionally create message log traces for I2C ‘write’ and ‘read’.
• TETRIX user defined servo names were not being properly setup by compiler. Fixed.
• nxtDisplayRicFile intrinsic was broken. Auto downloading of files from PC was disabled. Both are fixed.
• Xander’s 3^rd Party Sensor Drivers (from BotBench.com) are now updated and compatible with ROBOTC 3.54. The new driver are included in the NXT Sample Program’s directory.

VEX Cortex/PIC:

• Fix bug related to ‘char *’ and ‘string’. It was introduced with fix for “playSoundFile” not working. “playSoundFile” is now working for the Cortex.

General ROBOTC:

• Support for “Classic Mode” – This mode will disable the “variable stack” and treat all variable as “Global Variables” like ROBOTC used to before version 3.50. This setting is under “view – preferences”.
• Enhance directories for “Sound” files. There are now three possible choices — “common files” directory, “platform specific” directory and “user specified” directory. Implemented separate “Preferences” tab for “sounds”.
• Add new “Motors and Sensors Property Page” to configure size of “datalog” and “debug stream” buffers. Applicable to super user level only.
• Clear highlighted execution line when “Debugger” closes. Previously the line of current execution was left highlighted.
• Add support for “mouse wheel” with “Debug Stream Window”.
• Add command to “compile all source files in specified directory. Add separate pane to retain the new “multi-file compilation” errors. The normal error window is erased on next compile and you’ll likely want the multi-file results to hang around.
• Support for multiple user defined directories for compiler include files. Split “Detailed Preferences” into multiple property sheets when not menu basic and multiple tabs to display.
• Instead of hiding command for invalid debugger pane during Emulator/Virtual Worlds, the command is shown – When opened a message box will display indicating that window is not supported under emulator/virtual worlds.

ROBOTC Compiler and Other Fixes:

• Incorrect calculation of expression type of form <condition> ? true : false. Expression type was incorrectly calculated as a “integer type” rather than a “boolean type”. Fixed.
• Fix type in calculating binary expression numeric type.
• Fix incorrect calculation of expression types involving float constants. They were being set to “integer” type.
• Changed a few intrinsic procedure parameters from ‘int’ to ‘short’.
• Incorrect calculation of compile time constant code was resulting in unnecessary code generation for a complex, but constant value, expression.
• “Terminate expression parsing priority” comparison was effectively  “>=” instead of “>”.  Priority was being screwed up so that expressions “A + B – C” was generating code for “A – (B + C)”
• A few cases of “compile time constant” expressions values were not detected by compiler resulting in run-time code calculation for constant expressions. Specifically “0 / XX” is always zero regardless of ‘XX’ value. Also, constant expression of form AA = <numeric one> – <numeric two>” was generating code for run-time calculation even though could be calculated at compile time. Fixed.
• VM opcode uses 16-bit unsigned constant. But compiler was checking if 16-bit SIGNED value was in range.
• Incorrect compiler error message about array index out of bounds is possible when index is expression like “<constantVar> + numeric constant>”. The code for checking array bound range was only looking at “<constantVar>” and not including the <numeric constant>”. This is fixed.
• Fixed an error that did not mark precompiled headers as invalid if the precompiled source file had any errors from the previous compile attempt.
• Created separate Sample Program Root folders when in Virtual Worlds mode.
• Benign. Better support for type checking “void” and “void *” expressions to eliminate incorrect compiler warnings.
• Fix code generation for ‘string’ types. There were issues with “const string” variables having improper memory allocated. Improve code generation for assignment of “&” (address of) operator to avoid an unnecessary temporary.
• Eliminate legacy code that re-ordered syntax tress to optimize code generation for numeric. This was not “standard C” compliant because it re-ordered the order of how expressions were evaluated. Code generation is nearly as optimal except something like “X = 5 + y +6″ will separately generate instructions to add ’5′ and ’6′ rather than a single add of ’11′
• Better implementation of “type checking on string expressions”. Old implementation was occasionally generating incorrect compiler errors.
• Add support (in emulator only) for invalid pointer calculation in “get address of parameter” opcodes. It performs a range check to ensure calculated values are in range. This is not a complete check for invalid pointers but will catch many occurrences of unassigned pointers.
• Code generation for “large constants” (i.e. doesn’t fit in two bytes) was broken. Fixed.
• Incorrect calculation of “assign “&’ value to variable”. Bug recently introduced with string fixes.
• Improve code generation for ‘char string constants’.
• Add error message when no parameter is specified for nMotorEncoder/Motor/SensorValue/etc.
• Fix a few small issues in Licensing System for oft-used cases.
• Add compiler error message when no “main task” is defined.
• Add compiler error message that “&” is snot supported as part of a ‘cast’ qualifier. This is a C++ feature and not found in ANSI C.
• Fix bug in code generation for “goto XXX;” statement. Compiler optimization may not emit the unconditional branch and code generation was not handling the case of  a NULL pointer that resulted.
• Fix code generation problem with large constants (i.e. >16 bits) assigned to long variable. Compiler was incorrectly trying to generate code for optimized short forms (i.e. 16-bits or smaller parm index).
• “Events” no long work. Delete the sample program that illustrates them.
• Incorrect calculation of operator parsing priority for “&” (address of unary op) which should be ’3′. Instead it was using the priority for ‘&’ (bit and) which is priority ’10′.
• Fix incorrect code generation when assigning ‘float’ expressions to ‘int’ (char, short or long) variables.
• Fix compiler code generation for expressions using pointer subtraction — “<pointer> – <pointer”. also fix “<pointer> – <number>”
• Fixing an issue when a license is in the “clock rolled back” state and needs to be reset using a 30-day reset key – previously was not updating the “clock rolled back” state.
• Compiler does not handle ‘const string kConfigName = “FTCConfig.txt”;’ properly. Changed to ‘string kConfigName = “FTCConfig.txt”;’.
• Fix recent bug where “*” in declaration of type “typedef OBJ *POBJ” was being discarded. Extend typedef parsing to support declaration like “typedef unsigned char ubyte, *PUbyte”; i.e. change single declaration to a comma separated list.
• Debugger window for NXT Remote Screen in emulator was not properly recognizing the remote buttons. The message sent to emulator should have been a mask of buttons and instead was a index of a single button. Fixed.
• NULL char in middle of char string constant — e.g. “abc\0def” — resulted in incorrect storage by compiler into constant pool. Only the chars up to the NULL were being stored. Fixed.
• Char arrays whose array dimensions were initialized with empty bounds were incorrectly assigned one byte too large. The trailing NULL on the end of the char string constant was being included in the array dimension.
• Token scanner was not properly handling ‘\ddd’ special chars where ‘d’ is octal digit. This is now fixed and the standardized format for hex digits of ‘\xhh’ is also accepted.
• Complete implementation of new registry toggle to optionally automatically close start page on first user compiler. Also added as a command to the menu “View -> Preferences -> Close Start Page on First Compile”.
• Compiler was not parsing postfix “++” and “–” properly when they followed an expression. It worked fine on expressions with simple variables — “structVar.NN++” or “pStructVar->NN++” but didn’t work for more complicated expressions like “((TStruct *) &strucVar)->NN++”. It now handles the complicated expressions.
• Fix incorrect calculation of “useless expressions” for binary opcodes. Compiler detects ‘useless’ expressions and does not generate code for these. It was incorrectly flagging binary “+”, “-”, … operations as useless which is incorrect if one of the parameters has side effects like being a procedure call or an expression like “++” or an expression containing a “=” operator.
• Compiler crash when “++” or “==” were to expressions that didn’t immediately resolve to a symbol. e.g. “++((&g_obj)->n2);”.
• Fix code generation for expression like “(&OBJ)->n1″. Was throwing compiler error and generating incorrect code.
• Clear Debugger “Local Variables” pane when user program is finished or executing (vs suspended). When executing, don’t know which local variables (on stack) are valid.
• Expanded declaration support for statements like “int A, * B, *C, D;” where A and D are “int” and B and C are “int *”
• Signed / Unsigned type fixes for pointer variables. Allow “const string” procedure parameters to be matched by char constants (e.g. “ABC”).
• Fix issue with compiler indicating reference variables are only “read” but not “written”.
• Compiler was incorrectly assigning the ‘signed’ type of pointer variables to “unsigned” (i.e. the signed value of a pointer) rather than the desired type. Formatting routine for this was also broken.
• Ignore “find best procedure fit” parameter array checking when “void *”. “Void *” will match any pointer regardless of arrays.
• Improved calculation of expression result types for binary opcodes.
• Intermediate expressions were always converted to ‘signed’. Now if both operands (e.g. A + B” are unsigned then the expression result is also unsigned.
• Calculating best fit procedure was not checking array bounds of parameters for matching indices when the parameter was a pointer variable and an array variable. Fixed.
• “cast” operator now preserves signed type of typedefs that it references. Previously this information was lost.
• ‘signed’ and ‘unsigned’ now work properly when used in a “cast”.
• ‘char strings’ when used as arguments to ‘sprintf’ were broken. Fixed.
• Eliminate some overly aggressive warning messages about mixed expressions of numeric and ‘enums’. Standard C does not perform this level of checking and allows much more liberal mixed mode without warnings/errors.
• Better support for arrays. Allow variable to be declared with arrays that is based on a typedef that also specifies arrays. Previously arrays could only be declared in one “item”. Array bounds were not checked for integrity (i.e. the bounds match) when validating procedure parameters and calculating best fit procedure when multiple procedure overloads.
• Improved generation of “&” (address of) code.
• Improved type checking to allow equivalent but differently declared operand types to match. Previously had to be exact match.
• Generate compiler error for ‘&’ operator applied to a “property” (motor, servo, encoder, sensor) variable.
• Generate compiler error for ‘&’ operator applied to a numeric constant.
• Fix code generation for expressions like “char *ptr2 = buffer;” where ‘buffer’ is a implied pointer (e.g. a array of char). Previously code generation was assigning the contents of the first element of the array to “ptr2″ rather than the address of “buffer”.
• If the previous line triggered an “indent” — like a “if (xxx)” or “else” statement then next line was auto indented and when “{” is entered want to “undent” the auto indent. Add check for this case.
• Minor bug in calculation constant expression with unary ‘-’ with a constant numeric parm. Fixed.
• Code optimization for conditional branches with trinary opcodes where the trinary condition is a compile time constant.

We want to thank everyone who has been using our Robot Virtual World software and providing valuable feedback. Just so you know we’re listening, here are some of the major improvements that will be coming soon!

We had to do an overhaul of our infrastructure, but our VEX Sack Attack and FTC Ring it Up competition tables now support encoders on each joint! Here’s a screenshot of the Sensor and Motor Debug windows – look at all those inputs and outputs!

FTC Ring it Up!
Every NXT and TETRIX Motor on the robots is now equipped with an encoder. Due to several requests, we’ve also replaced the Compass Sensor with a Gyroscope! (Click the picture to enlarge)

VEX Sack Attack
Like the Ring it Up table, we’ve added encoders to the “shoulder” motors on Scooperbot and Clawbot. We also added a potentiometer to the scooper on Scooperbot, and Gyroscopes on all three of the robot models! (Click the picture to enlarge)

These are just some of the major improvements we’ve made in the competition tables. We’ve made lots of other great ones that you’ll just have to wait to see.

Keep an eye on our blog for their public availability, scheduled for the very beginning of November.

We’ve just produced an exciting video that shows off the new RVW Level Builder! Check it out to see how easy it is to get started with the powerful new software.

Download the initial version of the software, here. For more information on the Level Builder, visit this page.