Re: [avr-gcc-list] multi-tasking source for education?

[Matthew MacClary]

On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 03:52:50PM +0200, Jacob Verschoor wrote:
> I'am looking for a (free) multi-tasking program.  This software must
> have a user friendly interface, the peouple are 17/18 years old.(or
> young :-)

    What is your educational goal?  Are you trying to teach about
multiprogramming?
    I recently worked on an educational project for college Freshmen
mechanical engineering students.  At first I thought that a
multi-tasking system would be required so that the students could run
a bunch of motors with PWM, and also read sensors etc. simultaneously.
The main issue with this solution is that the environment would be too
complex for novice programmers.
    The final solution was to create an application specific library
of functions that would effectively run in parallel through the use of
timers on the mega8535.  I then put a friendly user interface on the
library so students could easily set up to 4 motors running, then
check sensors and make decisions.  Here is a web site with examples
using this library, but the library was written mostly in assembly for
CodeVision before I knew about avr-gcc.

http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/tekbots/mechlib/

-Matt


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