[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Dear Helmut and Max:

Thanks for your responses again. And I am sorry for writing about off-topic questions or issues, but I am still trying to put the pieces of information together in order to decide which tool is worth using. In your opinion there are some “monsters” like Eclipse and Visual Studio, and Helmut says Xamarin Studio is not a good choice either. We have already summarized which tools are NOT recommended, so it is time to reveal what to use instead. Or you guys just dreaming of a “super-simplified” IDE – so am I – which doesn’t exist yet? Actually I would be happy with ANY convenient IDE for EV3, Mono C# would be fine as well.

Best regards,
Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Hi, Helmut and Max:

Thanks for your feedbacks. It seems there are several tools to HANDLE EV3 brick (upload files, get screenshots, play music, etc.), but I’d like to PROGRAM my EV3! Let me summarize my understanding and experience:

JAVA: I have read (also elsewhere) that Java is very complicated to use, and on the other hand the childish sample programs haven’t convinced me either about that it would be the right choice.
BRICXCC: Originally developed for RCX and NXT bricks. In case of EV3 the programming possibilities are limited.
MONOBRICK: This is an attractive approach, guides are pretty much straightforward, not to mention this very forum. But I have already tried two versions of Xamarin Studio (v4.2 back in March and v5.0 recently) and although the installation completed successfully (at least it said that) Xamarin Studio simply didn’t start (in case of both versions just the annoying message appeared: Xamarin Studio encountered a problem and needs to close. Sorry for any inconvenience caused.). I use XP SP3, Hungarian version. Have I failed to install any prerequisite software/plugin/whatever? Could you comment this phenomenon, please!

Best regards,
Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Hi, Helmut:

I am glad to hear about BricxCC for NXT/RCX because I just tried that last week. I am also looking for a simple tool to program EV3. Probably you are aware of that BricxCC can be used for EV3 as well. Unfortunately I was not able compile the simplest program with that. The installation is a bit tricky, maybe something went wrong during its installation. BricxCC could communicate with EV3 via USB connection, but for example the color coding did not appeared in the editor and the compiler did not give any informative error message, and I am stuck again.

About two months ago I tried to install leJOS on an SD card. The installation was not the simplest thing but then I liked the smooth wifi connection with my PC. I did not have time to try the programming itself, then I got excited about the simple-looking BricxCC.

What do you think? What would you recommend? Where do you expect the desired simple IDE? I have even thought of BUYING RobotC, but I realized in time that its development for EV3 support is far from being completed. Anyway, my feelings are similar to yours towards Apple products, but I think Linux is a great thing (do not forget Kindle and EV3 are based on that).

Best regards,
Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Hi, Helmut:

I absolutely agree with your request and I liked your Xamarin/Arduino comparison, the contrast is huge between them. A few month ago I tried to figure out how to set up and use an IDE. I wanted to try Visual Studio with Python (IronPython) since I have some experience with that language. It was a nightmare and eventually I give up. After reading your post I realized the key is not the programming language, but a self-explanatory, easy to use IDE – just like the one of Arduino boards.

After a few month neglect I’d like to play with my EV3 again. Do you have any suggestion where to start? I am thinking of trying leJOS/Eclipse. What do you think?

Thanks,
Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Hi Anders:

I am sorry not responding your last message earlier. I am completely stuck with the Python approach, because I haven’t been able to compile the simplest program in PTVS. Despite the fact that I have zero experience with C# that would be a good direction for me too, because I could expect support from others. Could you recommend me something where I should start. I think I need an interactive development environment (preferably free one) and a good book about C# for beginners.

Thank you for your help.
Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

I am sorry, the CodePlex (PTVS download) link is missing from my previous post:
http://pytools.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=PTVS%20Installation

Zoltan

[Zoltan Szilagyi]

Hi Anders:

Thanks for your reply. I am a bit disappointed because of the low activity that my post has triggered. I am a kind of amateur programmer: in PhD work I wrote a command line application in Pascal for the simulation of a physical phenomenon, and now I am involved in a molecular biology research group’s activity where my colleagues are happy to use my text manipulation scripts written in Python. This is why I prefer Python.

I tried to play with PTVS but I haven’t got much success. I could open a new project, the desired interpreter (IronPython) was selected and the MonoBrickFirmware DLL file was “referenced” in the project so I can see its “content”, but I was not able to write the simplest code that works on EV3. I am not really familiar with object oriented languages, but I believe the simplest working example would be a great help for me. Where I have been able to get can be seen here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/52074994/PTVS/PTVS_screen_2014_0310.jpg

Once again: the most useful help would be a simple IronPython example written for EV3. Beyond that I still expect some help in the following matters:
– compilation of the program
– transfer the compiled program (via wifi connection with WinSCP, or directly from VS upon compilation)
– debugging possibilities

Trying PTVS is very easy for everyone, since its components can be downloaded for free:

Thanks anyone for the kick-off in this approach, in advance.
Zoltan

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