can I use a mac?

bigbear

I am working on a stepper motor interface via the USB port, and I thought a basic stamp might be the way to go. I am using an apple ibook running OS X. Will i be able to use my mac with this thing?


thanks,

BB

Chris Savage

While we don't support the Mac, a third party has created an editor that you can use which is available from our website under Downloads, BASIC Stamp Software, Macintosh Software.

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Chris Savage
Parallax Tech Support
csavage@parallax.com

bushi

Here's a link to the site that has more info about MacBS2.

www.muratnkonar.com/otherstuff/macbs2/

Be sure to read the requirements for the USB-to-Serial adapter if you're going to use a serial-based programmer. I've been working with the software for a week or so using the Board of Education programmer and it all works well. The other thing you'll need though is a terminal program if you're going to talk to the Stamp while it's running a program. Here's a link for one called goSerial:

www.furrysoft.de/?page=goserial&furrysoft=4cfa802b7d1d17bb2f690b47ab42f79c

Good Luck!

SSteve

I've been using MacBS2 for a couple weeks now. A few things to note going in:

1) There's a bug in the program that makes it look like you're in pbasic 2.5 mode when you start a new program when, in fact, you're in 2.0 mode. Get in the habit of selecting 2.0 then 2.5 every time you start a new program and you'll be fine.

2) The debug window is rudimentary. It understands CLS and CR, but not the clear commands (CLREOL, CLRDN) or any of the cursor positioning commands. (I think it understands HOME, but I don't remember for sure.)

3) If the "{$STAMP BS2}" directive isn't the first line in the file you'll get an error message. So if you download demo code, you'll need to move that line to the top before you can run the program.

Aside from that, it's great to have a way to use the BASIC Stamp from the Mac. Of course I'm hoping that Parallax will eventually see the light and start supporting the Mac directly now that it's the Alpha Geek machine of choice. But at least they made it possible by releasing the tokenizer for the Mac.

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OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows

Tracy Allen

Murat has addressed bug #1 and other issues in a new release,

www.muratnkonar.com/otherstuff/macbs2/downloads.shtml

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com

SSteve

It addresses #3 as well.

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OS-X: because making Unix user-friendly was easier than debugging Windows

Tracy Allen

It is now easier to update multibank projects, too. MacBS2 is smarter in this respect than Stampw.exe. If you have a project with, say 5 slots assigned, and then you rename the slot number 5, MacBS2 now automatically associates that name with the project and edits the $STAMP line in bank 0 to include the new name. The old file is still intact in the Finder, and the new file is a copy. I quite often use an existing multibank project as the starting point for a new one, or it is a revision, so that is a great feature.

Stampw.exe does not make that association and it can become quite confused when you rename a project file. So I have a strategy there that involves making copies and renaming the files on the desktop. That works too in MacBS2, but the new system is less work. MacBS2 requires a separate window for each project, with a tab for each slot, whereas in STAMPW, one window cann have tabs for many separate projects.

The new MacBS2 with the $STAMP and $PBASIC directives in the listing allows much easier movement of files back and forth to the Windows environment.

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Tracy Allen
www.emesystems.com