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NXTalk: Guest Blog

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I received a really interesting letter from Dr. Michael Haupt in Germany - in his own words:

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NXTalk: Programming LEGO Mindstorms NXT in Smalltalk

There is a considerable number of programming environments for the NXT available, but dynamic programming languages are somewhat underrepresented, pbLua notwithstanding. The NXTalk project is another such environment, making the Smalltalk programming language available for the NXT.

NXTalk provides a Smalltalk virtual machine (VM) that runs on the NXT on top of the NxOS open-source firmware. In addition to that, there is a development environment that is available for the Squeak Smalltalk implementation. Smalltalk applications for the NXT are developed in Squeak before they are assembled to virtual images for the NXTalk VM and transferred to the brick via USB.

The NXTalk project started out as a M.Sc. research project at HPI in Potsdam, Germany. It is working - but there is only limited manpower available to drive its development, so it now seeks contributions from the broader community. Anyone interested in contributing to the VM and environment can contact the project maintainer (e-mail address available from the project home page).

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I'd like to thank Dr. Haupt for sending this in - I hope some of our readers might find this of interest and be able to provide some feedback and assistance to him.

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