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Gordon McComb - Has Passed Away - Page 2 — Parallax Forums

Gordon McComb - Has Passed Away

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  • MacTuxLinMacTuxLin Posts: 821
    edited 2018-09-18 02:36
    "May you rest in peace, my first customer in Rocklin ... " Never met him but seems to have known him from the books he wrote.
  • My condolences to his family. It's always a huge loss when someone with such genius passes away.
  • Just saw this thread. Gordon was one of the brightest lights on the forum, I will miss his posts. Thoughts and prayers for his family.
  • It's quite amazing that there are very few photos and no videos I could find of Gordon. Seems Gordon McComb MD takes all the top spots. There should be more as Gordon was on the scene for almost 40 years.
  • K2K2 Posts: 691
    ...there have been so many that we have known over the years that have been big contributors to this forum and Parallax.
    That comment made me wonder if Leon is still with us.
    Wish there were some way to have preserved Gordon's knowledge, wisdom, and expertise. Fortunate for us, he wrote a lot of it down. :)
  • Lot's of great books on Amazon written by Gordon.
  • I want to thank all of you on the Parallax forum who have had so many kind things to say about Gordon. He was my best friend for 43 years and I miss him terribly.

    I am working on the Author Review of Robot Builder's Bonanza Fifth Edition. This is a huge job for someone whose electronic experience largely consists of stepping on resistors in her bare feet. I need some help from someone who can code. RBB always has a web presence, with programming code as well as other extras. I can pull some of the code from the manuscript, other code is just "partial" with the rest to show up on the Robotoid website. Also, the code for RBB4 is in .pde, and Gordon references the code in RBB5 in .ino. Any thoughts?
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2018-09-22 23:28
    First off we, will all miss Gordon, but not as much as you and the family. There is a great void in hobby robotics.

    We will try and help as much as we can. There is a HUGE cast of people here, with many talents that can help.

  • About the code...looks like he wrote it for the Arduino. The files that end in .pde are from an older version of the Arduino software, the extension was updated to .ino a few years ago.

    These files can be opened in the current software, and you will be prompted to re-save them as .ino.
  • xanadu: I have so few pictures of Gordon - he was always behind the camera - and I've never seen the picture you posted of him. Is there any way I could get a copy of it?
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    edited 2018-09-23 11:26
    @GordonsWife - Here is the photo of Jon, Gordon and Eric (erco). We sure will miss your husband, his knowledge, and his constant encouragement. He was one of my heroes.

    Please count on my prayers for you and your family. The photo below is also shared here - https://roboticsunderthestole.blogspot.com/2018/09/gordon-mccomb-father-of-hobby-robotics.html

    Jon%20Gordon%20and%20Eric.jpg
    960 x 960 - 101K
  • Thank you so much for this photo!
  • And you have my incredible amounts of support for what you are going through from here, I learned a lot from the books of his.
  • Oh and thank you for the photo as well.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    I've been looking through old posts for another lunch photo when Gordon came up my way ~Jan 2015, but no luck yet. The downside of having 16K posts to sift through. @"Ken Gracey" , can Parallax do a targeted image search around that date?
  • Is this what you are looking for, January 2015?
    https://forums.parallax.com/discussion/comment/1312282/#Comment_1312282
    (Scroll up to the top)
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    YES!!!! Thank you very much, Hal!

    gordon2.jpg
    1020 x 672 - 348K
  • Great photo, Eric. Thank you for sharing it with me.
  • I want to thank all of you on the Parallax forum who have had so many kind things to say about Gordon. He was my best friend for 43 years and I miss him terribly.

    I am working on the Author Review of Robot Builder's Bonanza Fifth Edition. This is a huge job for someone whose electronic experience largely consists of stepping on resistors in her bare feet. I need some help from someone who can code. RBB always has a web presence, with programming code as well as other extras. I can pull some of the code from the manuscript, other code is just "partial" with the rest to show up on the Robotoid website. Also, the code for RBB4 is in .pde, and Gordon references the code in RBB5 in .ino. Any thoughts?

    Can anyone help Gordon's wife to complete some code for the Fifth Edition. Let's get this done for Gordon. I can start a new thread for this.
  • Publison wrote: »
    I want to thank all of you on the Parallax forum who have had so many kind things to say about Gordon. He was my best friend for 43 years and I miss him terribly.

    I am working on the Author Review of Robot Builder's Bonanza Fifth Edition. This is a huge job for someone whose electronic experience largely consists of stepping on resistors in her bare feet. I need some help from someone who can code. RBB always has a web presence, with programming code as well as other extras. I can pull some of the code from the manuscript, other code is just "partial" with the rest to show up on the Robotoid website. Also, the code for RBB4 is in .pde, and Gordon references the code in RBB5 in .ino. Any thoughts?

    Can anyone help Gordon's wife to complete some code for the Fifth Edition. Let's get this done for Gordon. I can start a new thread for this.
    Is there any Propeller code in the 5th edition? Looks like the 4th edition is Arduino, PICAXE and BASIC Stamp.

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2018-09-27 00:35
    Looks like the 5th edition is newer Arduino code. Above my pay grade right now. I'm a SPIN and Basic guy trying to get his head wrapped around. Blockly and C.
  • Publison wrote: »
    Looks like the 5th edition is newer Arduino code. Above my pay grade right now. I'm a SPIN and Basic guy trying to get his head wrapped around. Blockly and C.
    I might be able to help with Arduino code but I don't know the PIXAXE or the BASIC Stamp if either is still in use for the 5th edition.

  • Our deepest condolences to Gordon's family. Never met him but knew his work well. His tutorials were what helped me learn how to code and interface with all of the Parallax sensors. They were well written, and you could tell he was interested in teaching people how not to be scared! An oasis amongst hard-to-understand tutorials.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,244
    David Betz wrote: »
    Publison wrote: »
    Looks like the 5th edition is newer Arduino code. Above my pay grade right now. I'm a SPIN and Basic guy trying to get his head wrapped around. Blockly and C.
    I might be able to help with Arduino code but I don't know the PIXAXE or the BASIC Stamp if either is still in use for the 5th edition.

    I can help on a limited time basis with Stamp & Picaxe code.
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    Publison wrote: »
    Can anyone help Gordon's wife to complete some code for the Fifth Edition. Let's get this done for Gordon. I can start a new thread for this.

    I am with Publison on this. With all the smart folks here, we ought to be able to help. Many thanks to those who have already volunteered!

  • Hi -

    There are some bits with other code suffixes, but nearly everything I'm struggling with ends in .ino, which I believe is Arduino. The biggest problem I'm facing is pulling together the Support Site for the book. He always worked on that part of a project after the book was at the publishers, just before it hit the stands. There are a number of references like, "...you can find the complete code sketch on the Support Site..." in the last third of the book. This Support Site is supposed to be up and running by Christmas. You can see what he did with RBB4. The site is www.robotoid.com. He could write code in his sleep, so we didn't anticipate a problem. If you've got any ideas, let me know. To those of you who were personal friends of Gordon: I still answer his phone.
  • zappmanzappman Posts: 418
    edited 2018-09-27 06:43
    I want to thank all of you on the Parallax forum who have had so many kind things to say about Gordon. He was my best friend for 43 years and I miss him terribly.

    I am working on the Author Review of Robot Builder's Bonanza Fifth Edition. This is a huge job for someone whose electronic experience largely consists of stepping on resistors in her bare feet. I need some help from someone who can code. RBB always has a web presence, with programming code as well as other extras. I can pull some of the code from the manuscript, other code is just "partial" with the rest to show up on the Robotoid website. Also, the code for RBB4 is in .pde, and Gordon references the code in RBB5 in .ino. Any thoughts?
    Hi -

    There are some bits with other code suffixes, but nearly everything I'm struggling with ends in .ino, which I believe is Arduino. The biggest problem I'm facing is pulling together the Support Site for the book. He always worked on that part of a project after the book was at the publishers, just before it hit the stands. There are a number of references like, "...you can find the complete code sketch on the Support Site..." in the last third of the book. This Support Site is supposed to be up and running by Christmas. You can see what he did with RBB4. The site is www.robotoid.com. He could write code in his sleep, so we didn't anticipate a problem. If you've got any ideas, let me know. To those of you who were personal friends of Gordon: I still answer his phone.
    Yes files that end in .pde or .ino are Ardunio files.
    On the RBB4 code page robotoid.com/downloadable-program-code.html there are about 33 .pde files. I did a quick test, and chose 4 files at random; joystick.pde, propane.pde, speakjet.pde, and temperature.pde. I opened them with Arduino 1.8.5 (which was already installed on my computer). For each of the 4 test files, I was able to verify that they compiled and when I saved them, the files were automatically saved as .ino files. The converted files should be able to, be zipped and uploaded to the RRB5 site. I did notice that the joystick file needs to have it's comments updated. As it states:
    joystick.pde, v1.0
      
      Robot teaching pendant, using old style IBM PC game joystick.
      For Arduino Diecimila or later
      Use Arduino IDE v0017 or later
      
      From Robot Builder's Bonanza, Fourth Edition
      www.robotoid.com
    
  • Thank you. Now for all the new content coming from the 5th edition...
  • WhitWhit Posts: 4,191
    @GordonsWife - Good news about all the code and the 5th Edtion. Sounds like it will all sort out.

    I also know that you are keeping busy with finishing this up for Gordon and for his readers everywhere...

    But I know too that when you are not staying busy - there are times of quiet, lonely grief by yourself and with your family. Please know that I (and many others here) remember this and are sending prayers of support.
  • Thank you for your kind words, Whit. I think I've got all the code sorted out for the RBB5 book. Now I am beginning the work on the Support Site that Gordon always provided, and refers to throughout the book. I will still appreciate help on that.
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