Idea: Visual NXC

[muntoo]

I'm starting to think that this can actually be an alternate IDE than BricxCC - and not just for the Visual NXC users, but for the "text" NXC users too. BricxCC's GUI isn't too impressive (IMHO), but not every programmer's a designer*.

If you can put in stuff like "NXTScreen"/"Watch"/and other tools in a Tools menu, or something... And organize the menus better than BricxCC, which don't seem as "logical" as I should like.

*No offense, John. ...Unless you really consider yourself to be an artist.

[mattallen37]

I actually like BCC a lot more than the Arduino or PICAXE IDE. It is really easy to use IMO. I can't think of anything at the moment that I would prefer to have different, other than perhaps some of the RCX vs. NXT terms fixed a little.

[muntoo]

I actually like BCC a lot more than the Arduino or PICAXE IDE. It is really easy to use IMO. I can't think of anything at the moment that I would prefer to have different, other than perhaps some of the RCX vs. NXT terms fixed a little.

The actual text editor is one thing. The tabs (for indenting code) are kind of messed up, and it's not too beautiful. The drag & copy is also messed up. These are only two of the multiple reasons why I've switched to Notepad++.

Also, a ".bccproj" file would be nice, so that BricxCC can move from 15% text editor and 10% IDE to 15% text editor and 60% IDE. (Where Notepad++ is a 100% text editor [and also partly IDE, if you include all the plugins], and NetBeans is a 100% IDE. Also, these numbers are just sheer guesses, so don't critisize me for not making BricxCC 15.42% text editor instead. )

But even if all those things are fixed, BricxCC just doesn't look as impressive as NetBeans, or other IDEs. (But then again, BricxCC is maintained by one-man-programmer John Hansen*, who, as far as I know, doesn't have any aspirations of becoming an artist**.)

Again, this isn't really John's "fault", just some things I would've liked that I hope will be fixed in Visual NXC.

*Who is secretly Donald Knuth, but uses the codename 'John Hansen' or 'afanofosc' on these forums...
**In the traditional sense. Not a "code artist", but a "painter/graphics/designer" kind of artist.

[sidneys1]

I'm starting to think that this can actually be an alternate IDE than BricxCC - and not just for the Visual NXC users, but for the "text" NXC users too. BricxCC's GUI isn't too impressive (IMHO), but not every programmer's a designer*.

If you can put in stuff like "NXTScreen"/"Watch"/and other tools in a Tools menu, or something... And organize the menus better than BricxCC, which don't seem as "logical" as I should like.

*No offense, John. ...Unless you really consider yourself to be an artist.

This is theoretically possible, especially since I plan to implement a "custom code" block that lets you inject straight-up NXC code right into your program. I don't want to steal BricxCC's glory though.. it's an incredible achievement/investment, and John has put a lot of work into it. V-NXC is meant to supplement BricxCC, not to replace it. Users will likely still be required to install BricxCC in order to compile and etc.

As for the GUI being nice... I have alot of practice I started with a browser, moved on to a (work in progress) video editor, an batch image processor, and now a IDE

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

[sidneys1]

Just a quick update.. I downloaded the Mono plugins for VS2010, and so far it looks like Visual NXC is 100% Mono compatable, so hopefully when I'm done Linux and Mac OSX users will be able to use it as well

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

EDIT: And here's a screenshot of it running on MONO! Maybe I'll see what it looks like on Ubuntu later Because of certain limitations of Mono, I had to tweak the Aero Glass extentions around, and as a result their slightly off-kilter, but I can fix that with some more "#if MONO" code.... Also, the icons for Threads and Methods in the "Items:" view seem to have gotten stretched somehow..

[sidneys1]

Did some scrummaging around, and here's what I've done. The Mono V-NXC (left) and the .NET V-NXC (right) are now almost identical! I solved the issue with the method and thread icons by dumbing them down from 32-bit color depth to 8-bit color depth. The rest was all issues with metrics.. I didn't even need #if MONO!


Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

[jojoguy14]

Just a quick update.. I downloaded the Mono plugins for VS2010, and so far it looks like Visual NXC is 100% Mono compatable, so hopefully when I'm done Linux and Mac OSX users will be able to use it as well

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

EDIT: And here's a screenshot of it running on MONO! Maybe I'll see what it looks like on Ubuntu later Because of certain limitations of Mono, I had to tweak the Aero Glass extentions around, and as a result their slightly off-kilter, but I can fix that with some more "#if MONO" code.... Also, the icons for Threads and Methods in the "Items:" view seem to have gotten stretched somehow..

YAY! Finally! A NXT language that works on Ubuntu! THANK YOU!!

jojoguy10

[sidneys1]

YAY! Finally! A NXT language that works on Ubuntu! THANK YOU!!

jojoguy10

Unfortunately, Mono doesn't officially support Ubuntu.. I just found that out

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

[jojoguy14]

YAY! Finally! A NXT language that works on Ubuntu! THANK YOU!!

jojoguy10

Unfortunately, Mono doesn't officially support Ubuntu.. I just found that out

Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

[tcwan]

Did some scrummaging around, and here's what I've done. The Mono V-NXC (left) and the .NET V-NXC (right) are now almost identical! I solved the issue with the method and thread icons by dumbing them down from 32-bit color depth to 8-bit color depth. The rest was all issues with metrics.. I didn't even need #if MONO!


Have a nice day,
~Sidneys1

Sorry to butt into this thread with this, but I keep getting a 'frog in an icecube' image with some text which states "domain unregistered" with your images. When I go to the site, it said that the site admin/moderator must register the site to access images?