rg@msel.unh.edu (Roger Gonzalez) (05/22/91)
I'm going to be writing/implementing an interpreted language to control our underwater robot. I've taken one course in compilers, and know (more or less) lex and yacc (enough to have implemented a pascal subset once.. well actually a multifunction calculator that understood pascal but didn't do anything except math functions.) The parser will be running under the VxWorks real-time OS, and will be listening at a TCP socket for commands. So I'm looking for suggestions. Some desired features of the language: variable manipulation math functions run commands "in background" ala csh (spin off processes) send "goto xyzb" commands to controller set controller parameters "read" from sensors, "write" to effectors run "compiled" version of language from file "install" sensor or effector "device driver" at an address other things?? I've always had warm fuzzy feelings about postfix languages (forth, postscript) but have been told that they are bad because they are "write once"; i.e. hard to modify to change the behavior. Perhaps a lispish language? Maybe I should just grab the csh parser and modify it? Any advice would be appreciated. -Roger -- "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim" - Edsgar W. Dijkstra rg@[msel|unhd].unh.edu | UNH Marine Systems Engineering Laboratory r_gonzalez@unhh.bitnet | Durham, NH 03824-3525