The PIC32-Basic
**** Version 2 out now ****
This is the documentation for the BV513, PIC32_Basic & Micro-BOS. The BV513 is a PIC32 based microcontroller board with built in BIOS and operating system. The PIC32-Basic enables the BV513 to be used by a wider range of people.
For a quick introduction see the movies section.
Introduction
The tabs across the top only contain the main headings, don't forget to look down the side menu for the section items. There is a fair amount of documentation and so if you have just received the BV513 then the best place to begin is by viewing the movie until you get the sign on and then going on to the articles section with Getting Started.
What is PIC32-Basic
PIC32-Basic is an interpreted basic running on a 32bit microcontroller. It is purpose written for that environment and can take advantage of the available Flash and RAM. Using an interpreted BASIC has some advantages in that all the actions are interactive. It is possible to peek the microcontrollers registers at any rime and even set them whilst it is still running. The main thrust of the environment is to enable relative newcomers to be able to get something out of a microcontroller without having to learn C, assembler or any special tools that may be required.
This product works via a simple terminal emulator and so no specialist software needs installing. The software is all contained on the Microcontroller. This makes it ideal as a learning tool or an application where a particular host PC is unavailable. Although this is an interpreted language it is still quite powerful with many features such as scheduling only found on compiled languages. Although based on BASIC, this is a truly unique language. The basic element is a function which in turn can call other sfunctions. The functions can be held in Flash as a library of keywords, in this way the language is extendable and can be tailored to the target application.
The functions can of course be called interactively, so for example suppose that we have a robot arm connected; a function called 'wrist' could be designed do that 'wrist(12.7)' could turn the wrist 12.7 degrees. This could be typed at the console and an immediate reaction could be observed.
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