I agree with you that the parallel port is obsolete and that the USB is the way to go in the future. The Maria language itself is not tied to one type of interface; which interface is selected depends upon the doll creator. For the initial interpreter, however, I do have several good reasons for selecting the parallel port. I'm using the Java language and it is easier to implement serial and parallel ports. For experimenters (my target group) the parallel port is easy to interface with (I've already published a simple interface unit). To do the same thing with a USB connection requires something like a PIC microcontroller at the hardware end that must be programmed. For experimenters that are hardware oriented this additonal programming task may be more than they feel comfortable with.Downer wrote:Parallel port?! Are you kidding me?
USB is the only way to go with this. I think it would be detrimental to support an old, less flexible, and generally dying connection standard when a vastly superior standard has already been widely adopted.
I can see USB as being excellent for a modular system, just upgrade your doll by plugging in new hardware. Also, USB can be done wirelessly which is nice. With the intial version of the interpreter I will be supplying Java source code which can be used by developers/creators to create their own interfaces.
The reason for object-oriented (sort of) approach was that it was easy to model the body (body, systems, organs etc.). I have made several changes and will be using an event type model to handle responses through the doll's "nervous system". I have been reading a bit about state-event programming and may incorporate some of concepts from it in future versions.Downer wrote: Also, I'm not so sure the object-oriented paradigm is right for this particular application. Have you considered a state-event paradigm for the language?
Further critique pending finished read of spec.
I'll be updating the Maria specs soon. Unfortunately finishing the first interpreter is quite a bit more work than I had expected.
xxxtoytech