The RoboMind development environment

RoboMind is simply all that you need in order to write, test and execute ROBO programs. Hence, ROBO has a completely integrated development environment (IDE) that allows you to monitor your script with only a single click. The user interface is flexible, but has also been kept simple. In most other programming environments you would encounter tools and gadgets that would only complicate things, but these have been omitted here in order to fully optimize RoboMind’s user-friendliness.

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The text editor

In fact all ROBO scripts are just plain text files. That means you can use any text editor (like notepad) to write your programs. You can then load them in RoboMind.

The integrated text editor, however, offers extra functionality that makes writing programs as simple as possible. These features include:

• Syntax highlighting: color different aspects of the language differently for readability (variables, basic instructions, procedures)
  
• Code completion: to reduce typing and quickly insert commands there is code completion: only type the first letters of a command and [Ctrl]+[Space] will finish it automatically for you. If it is ambiguous, a pop-up menu is presented.
  
• Line numbers ensure you can find errors in your program quicker.
  
• Messages appear in the margin.
• Unlimited undo changes.
• Advanced find and replace functionality allowing regular expressions.
• An arrow will indicate which command in your program is being executed at the moment.
  

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The monitor

The monitor is the screen where the robot and its world are visualized in. The environment can easily be explored by simply dragging the map with your mouse. You can also zoom in order to adjust the level of detail to your preferences. The camera can track the robot automatically.

Note that version 1.0 the monitor has been made skinnable. This means that you can customize the appearance of your robot and its world according to your own desires.

Next to all this you are even able to take screenshots of the current situation. These jpg-images can be stored automatically in a pre-assigned folder (see: File > Settings > General > Snapshots). Most pictures on this site have also been made by using this function, just to show you it’s usefulness. As a matter of fact this feature is in particular useful for teachers to help clarify exercises.

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Execution of programs

You do not have to take any special action in order to observe how your program works. Correct scripts can be executed by just one single click, improving the interactivity in the design/test cycle. In some other applications you might need to compile your scripts manually.

Taken into account that you will not be happy with errors (bugs) you made in your program, it is to be preferred that you can detect these bugs in an early stage. That is why you will be made aware of errors before the program will be executed. These alerts will be shown in the bottom of the screen.

While analyzing the behavior of your program, it is useful to adjust the pace of the execution. The pace of the robot can be changed by simply moving the slider. For examining the control flow even more precisely, the development environment allows executing single instructions step by step.

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Variable environments

Things would not be very interesting if the environment would always be the same. That is why a wide variety of maps can be loaded for the robot to play around in. An increasing number of maps will become available over time to increase the novelty of the ROBO experience. Also with a little hacking from your side, you can create maps all by yourself (See the documentation at the download section).

Download

Download the RoboMind development environment