Brixcc on a Mac

[JopieK]

Hi guys,

a colleague of mine asked me about how to run Brixcc or something like it on Mac without Wine or an other virtual Windows solution?! All his students have a mac, they are unable to use a virtual windows because of maintainability etc.

Any ideas appreciated.

Johan

[DLuders]

The Bricx Command Center 3.3 webpage states that "Bricx Command Center (BricxCC) is a Windows (95, 98, ME, NT, W2K, XP, Vista) program commonly known as an integrated development environment (IDE) for programming the RCX (all versions), Scout, Cybermaster, and Spybot programmable bricks using Dave Baum's Not Quite C (NQC) language."

However, "Check the Utilities page for a link to the new Mac OS X and Linux NeXT Tools application and other NXT utilities." What Lego device are the students trying to control?

Edited November 5, 2011 by DLuders

[JopieK]

I know that BrixCC is Windows, but there might be IDE's that can use NXC or something like that. I think they use the NXT but not totally sure.

[SNIPE]

Perhaps 'crossover' can run it, there is paid version or a trail version but it is much better than 'wine'

Edited November 6, 2011 by SNIPE

[JopieK]

But I think he doesn't want that, it needs to be installed on all (Computer Science) high school student computers and that makes it less manageable by the ICT department I guess.

[SNIPE]

I wouldd have say it is not possible then.

You can install it on several machines because, when you buy the full version of 'crossover', because you will get the licence/product key which you have to type in order to install it.

[DLuders]

Here is an article that discusses "Lego NXT on the Mac" -- http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.04/LegoNXTontheMac/index.html . It says that Not eXactly C (NXC) is compatible with a Mac, but is a bit more complex than the graphic-based Mindstorms NXT software. You could e-mail the author (using the address at the end of the article) to ask him some questions.

Lego Mindstorms NXT powered by NI [National Instruments] LabView is compatible with Macs. One can "Program your robot to do what you want with intuitive, drag-and-drop software based on LabVIEW. With LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0, you are limited only by your imagination."

On this NI LabVIEW webpage, here are the Macintosh system requirements for the software:

"PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor; 600 MHz minimum

Mac OS X versions 10.3.9 (Education Software only) and 10.4 and 10.5 (Both)

512 MB of RAM minimum

Up to 700 MB of available hard disk space

XGA display (1024x768)

One available USB port

CD-ROM drive

Compatible Bluetooth adapter (optional)¹

¹ Supported Bluetooth software includes WIDCOMM Bluetooth for Windows (later than Version 1.4.2.10 SP5) and the Bluetooth stacks included in Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 or 3), Windows Vista (with or without Service Pack 1) and Mac OS X (10.3.9, 10.4, and 10.5)."

[JopieK]

Of course NXT-G works indeed. That is not the problem. Since it is for Computer Science, the teacher probably wants them to use NXC or something like that.

[SNIPE]

^{Next Byte Codes (NBC) is a simple language with an assembly language syntax that can be used to program Lego Mindstorms NXT programmable bricks. The command line compiler outputs NXT compatible machine code, and is supported on Windows, Mac OS and Linux It is maintained by John Hansen, a Mindstorms Developer Program member.}

^{If he does not want that then you can learn C, or ASM or maybe BASIC , these are very common and are supported by all OS's.}

Edited November 7, 2011 by SNIPE