Fedora linux with BS1 and PDB

Kirby

I use Fedora, currently FC9. I have been playing with the Homework board for a while and thought it would be cool to mess with some of the other products. So, this holiday season I bought the PDB/StampCollection combo. I unpack the board and:

BS1 - apparently no support for linux anywhere, anywhy. The DOS compiler doesn't appear to be on the Parallax website anymore.
BS2 - works perfectly
BS2p40, BS2pe - "Error: No BASIC Stamp identified!"
BS2px - Seems the current version of tokenizer.so doesn't support this variant

I am using PBASIC Tokenizer Library version 1.23 and bstamp_run/bstamp_tokenizer version 2004-05-12.

stampbc won't build so I can't say I have tried it.

Any ideas? I hate to think that I have ended up back where I started, only with a fancier board.

LoopyByteloose

I have just about shifted all my web surfing over to Ubuntu Linux as it is better protected and better for self support in Taiwan.
Last year, I explored installing all the Parallax software in WINE on my EeePC in Xandros Linux.

There is a way to use Linux, but it is somewhat roundabout.

The results are that you can use WINE to write and edit programs with Parallax's IDEs for Windows.

The PBasic, the SX/B, the SX/C, SXasm, and SPIN all work as editiors. But WINE cannot reach a serial port or USB at the low level required to directly install programs in Linux. I am not sure if the SX simulator is fully functional.

For myself, I have adapted both a 32bit XP machine and a 64bit Vista Machine to be dual boot. Both are using NTFS for Windows and Ext3 for Linux. The XP has a shared FAT32 partition that I can have my Parallax code available regardless of my choice of booting Linux or Windows.

For me, it is a reasonable choice as I cannot fill the harddisk space I have. And I truly believe that learning computing through Linux is quite important. Windows will never teach you as much.

But I also feel strongly that Parallax will teach you more about microcontrollers than just about any other platform or vendor. The people are wonderful and the processors are far more flexible to creativity. Rather than using brute force, Chip Gracey uses microprocessors elegantly. And the SPIN IDE is a wonderful programing tool with unique features.

So having said all that, I know you might be one of those who feel that Windows will never pollute your harddisk.

I can only say that I would be happy to mentor you through a painless dual boot installation in XP if you have PartitionMagic 8.0 or Acronis partition software and you could use it sparingly.

Parallax is faced with the reality that 90% of the computer users and even more of their customers own a Windows machine. Parallax has intensely been in development of so much new software - like SPIN and SX/C - that parallel support for Linux remains a back burner project. I am sure they would love to do it, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Of course, if you are a high power Python programmer, you might take an interest in helping them out. Nearly all of Parallax's programmers are working on a consultant basis and scattered all over the world.

In sum, creative input is always welcome. And everyone tries to keep an open mind.

If you have read through the Tokenizer documentation, you will see that it originally only supported a limited subset of BasicStamp2.

There may be an upgrade out their in the 'open source' community that you have overlooked. You might try SourceForge as I seem to recall several projects.
But if you really feel deceived, contact Customer Service and tell them how you want to get this resolved.

Parallax really wants you to enjoy the experience of using their products. It is not a big outfit, like Microchip or Maxim/Dallas Semi.

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How do you like my name change?

aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan

Post Edited (Loopy Byteloose) : 1/18/2009 5:24:01 PM GMT

Kirby

Loopy, thank you for your generous reply. I wish to address the end of your message first. I agree that Parallax does an extremely good job presenting their products along with microcontrollers in general. I certainly do not wish to give the impression that I was deceived by Parallax. They have handled my issue with the highest standards of customer service. Rather I am disappointed that I am not able to pursue their Basic Stamp offerings any further.

The WINE serial problem, as you mentioned, is very frustrating. The IDEs do work well under WINE. Unfortunately, without the way to actually program the stamp....

The SPIN world is a completely different story. Brad Campbell has provided an amazingly complete IDE.

As for dual-boot option, I only own one copy of Windows and I don't think I would be able to find all of the floppies if I were to try to install it.<grin>

LoopyByteloose

XP is nearing the end of life as Vista 32 bit has been put forth to take its place and I suspect there will be Windows 7 32 bit.

One of Microsoft's problems with Windows XP has been that they gave corporations one authorization for many copies and they really don't know how many legal copies versus how many illegal copies there are in the world. From what I gather Vista and beyond are identifying one copy to one machine through a different process.. I happen to own a complete legal registered XP Pro so this is a non-issue with me, but you may be able to pick up a cheal legal copy from someone that doesn't want to use it.

If you can find an economical copy of XP and don't plan to surf the net with it, that installed in a dual boot would be the easiest fix. Dual boot can be a challenge, but with Linux being the first install, you might be able to use GParted and a Windows recovery disk [noparse][[/noparse]both Ghost and Partition Magic provide such software] in order to get a full dual boot system without data loss.

As I have my XP set up, I can program in Linux via Wine and store the programs in the FAT32 partition. When I am ready to install them on the BasicStamp, I can reboot in XP and see the same programs. This is about the best I could figure out as I wanted to use Linux for all the IDEs.

I have been sucessful with Fedora Core 9, Ubuntu 8.04, Xandros, and Debian 4.0. I prefer Ubuntu as Fedora doesn't offer any free video features and its Selinux is a bit difficult.

The real problem here is that the Parallax IDEs offer a lot of examples and are basically sophisticated teaching tools with help screens and docuentation. Just getting to program in Linux without all the support would be relatively easy. It is all the extra stuff that makes it a challenge.

Good luck to you. I suspect that full Linux support will eventually evolve. Many of us feel that the Windows upgrade path is getting more dubious and too costly.

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How do you like my name change?

aka G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse] 黃鶴 ] in Taiwan