Exploring Tekkotsu Programming on Mobile Robots:

Files and Directories

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Classroom Configuration

For classroom use, Tekkotsu should be installed in a common directory readable by all students, typically /usr/local/Tekkotsu. The environment variable TEKKOTSU_ROOT should point to this directory. This saves disk space and makes updates easier because the system only has to be recompiled once when an update is made.

Each student will have a "project" directory in their home directory where their personal Tekkotsu applications reside. There is a prototypical blank project directory in the Tekkotsu root directory that can be copied when a new user account is created. If a user has multiple projects they can create several project directories, with arbitrary names, but the first one is normally called ~/project or (on the Mac) ~/Desktop/Tekkotsu project.

Throughout this tutorial, we will assume that the Tekkotsu root directory is /usr/local/Tekkotsu, and the user's project directory is ~/project.

The only disadvantage to this configuration is that students will be unable to modify the Tekkotsu code itself. If such modifications are necessary, use the developer configuration instead.

Developer Configuration

For developers who are working independently, or for students who need to modify the Tekkotsu code, the Tekkotsu root directory should be installed in the user's home directory, i.e., ~/Tekkotsu. The user's default project directory is still ~/project, and the prototype project directory is ~/Tekkotsu/project.

AIBO Memory Sticks

The memory sticks for the AIBO use an 8.3 naming structure, i.e., filenames are at most 8 characters long and extensions at most 3 characters long, and only one case is supported. (On Linux machines and Macs, filenames appear as all lowercase.)

When writing a memory stick, the new contents are obtained from the directory ~/project/ms. (The "ms" stands for "memory stick".) The ms directory itself corresponds to the root directory "/" on the memory stick, so if you look at a directory listing of the memory stick you will not see ms. Instead you will see that the top level directories are config, data, and open-r. These correspond to ~/project/ms/config, ~/project/ms/data, etc.

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Last modified: Thu Jan 22 21:56:03 EST 2009