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The C tutorials.... — Parallax Forums

The C tutorials....

whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
edited 2014-06-01 22:30 in General Discussion
Hi,
I can't find the Step by Step C propeller tutorials ?

Comments

  • whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
    edited 2014-05-31 16:56
    edit; sorry, found it in the Learn section
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-05-31 17:16
    If you don't already know how to program in C, you might be better off starting with Spin. Presently there's a lot more example code for the Propeller written in Spin than there is example code in C.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2014-05-31 19:31
    And, for completeness, here is the link:

    http://learn.parallax.com/propellerc
  • whiteoxewhiteoxe Posts: 794
    edited 2014-05-31 21:42
    Duane Degn wrote: »
    If you don't already know how to program in C, you might be better off starting with Spin. Presently there's a lot more example code for the Propeller written in Spin than there is example code in C.

    yep Duane, since i have used spin for a number of fun experiments i could go back to that , but i am enjoying the C book i bought from amazon. I use CODE BLOCKS, ITS A c ide/COMPILER that works in linux and windows( do some C in bed when i wake up on my laptop ;) its win 7. Otherwise im up using Mint !

    reasons are I always wanted to learn a bit of C and I have a new Arduino as well.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-05-31 22:41
    Frankly, I am finding that for the Propeller one has to just bite the bullet and fully learn how to use Simpletool and Simpletext libraries.

    The situation is that you can study C and C++ all you want, but the i/o specific tools are in those two libraries and they are NOT exactly the same as on a PC, nor are they anywhere near the same as what Arduino does.

    Richie and Kernighan openly admitted in their texts that the i/o features are not part of the C language... they are in the libraries. Since microcontrollers are very i/o intensive, you have to master the specific i/o libraries.

    Propelleriuno will allow you to port Arduino code, but it would be best to learn what the Propeller really does.
  • jazzedjazzed Posts: 11,803
    edited 2014-06-01 11:26
    One can learn many things from the Propeller C Learn Tutorials. It is a starting point "package" ... It's an introductory C programming course that engages learning with an interesting physical device called the ActivityBot.

    The ActivityBot is the Educational equivalent of a web browser IMHO .... It's a fantastic application of microcontroller power that is easy to learn, and can easily be extended to real-world control applications.

    A good teacher can be beneficial .... Maybe some online alternative or community education classes would be useful?


    "Openly admitted" sounds like it was a failure. Far from that, the great success of C (or similar language) is that it has had such a long life (at least for those of us who like the language and all the other C-like languages). Part of that success is that the language allowed for abstract things like libraries. That is by no means a failure :)

    A specific language like PBASIC on the other hand requires all this IO because it supports a microcontroller series of modules ... and nothing else as a vendor supplied product. Spin however could be ported to any other microcontroller fairly easily because it is fully open by comparison.

    Loopy Byteloose wrote: »
    Frankly, I am finding that for the Propeller one has to just bite the bullet and fully learn how to use Simpletool and Simpletext libraries.

    The situation is that you can study C and C++ all you want, but the i/o specific tools are in those two libraries and they are NOT exactly the same as on a PC, nor are they anywhere near the same as what Arduino does.

    Richie and Kernighan openly admitted in their texts that the i/o features are not part of the C language... they are in the libraries. Since microcontrollers are very i/o intensive, you have to master the specific i/o libraries.

    Propelleriuno will allow you to port Arduino code, but it would be best to learn what the Propeller really does.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-06-01 22:30
    @jazzed

    Setting aside the semantic debate over my choice of words to emphasize that i/o is NOT part of the C or C++ language, the issue still remains that learning these two core libraries have significant importance.

    It has take me a while to realize that the floating-point math calls up a cog for a co-processor and seems to add about 2K byte of code for support. If the user learns to use SimpleTools and SimpleText selectively to avoid floating point, there is a big saving of code space.

    The C and C++ languages presume that resources are not affected by choice of i/o functions and that there is adequate RAM for everything.

    Anytime I can save 2k bytes of code space and a Cog for other things, I would prefer to do so. So it is important to learn these libraries, and it would be greatly helpful to more clearly explain how floating point formats affect the deployment of serial i/o.

    The fact remains, C and C++ as languages do not address particulars of i/o. That is where the libraries -- standard and non-standard -- come in.

    I never said C was a failure. I am just pointing out that having spent a lot of time reading and rereading Richie and Kernighan and other C material, I find that the Propeller libraries do need to be learned in depth. Otherwise, all the tutorials in the world will not get optimal results.
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