Interactive C is a custom version of the C language designed for educational robotics. It was originally created by Randy Sargent and Fred Martin when they developed the MIT 6.270 Robot Controller.
When using Interactive C (IC), an interpreter program (called the ”firmware”) is loaded onto the Handy Board. Then, the desktop compiler communicates with this interpreter. IC then compiles your code—as you type it—and downloads it to the interpreter for immediate execution.
Interactive C, or “IC,” was maintained by the KISS Institute for Practical Robotics. It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms.
The Interactive C page on their site is down. Here is a snapshot from the Internet Archive.
Here are copies of the final releases issued by KIPR:
- IC for Windows XP, 2000, Vista: 8.0.2- Released 2008-03-31
- IC for Mac OS X 10.3, 10.4, 10.5: 8.0.2 – Released 2008-03-31
- IC for Linux with gcc-3.3 (built on Ubuntu): 8.0.2 – Released 2008-03-31
I have heard that there is a version 5.xxxx firmware. Can anybody confirm this? Reason why, version 4.30 only allows for 4 processes to run where I heard that version 5.xxxx can run up to 8 processes. Is this true? If so, can anybody guide me to version 5.xxxx
The latest IC is available from KIPR/Botball per the link above. What rev level of the firmware does it include?
The lateset software for IC is 8.0.2 and the firmware is 4.30. At least that is what is displayed on the LCD after loading the firmware.