Beeperbot and PET

Beeper Bot & PET Files

Joseph Culberson, Janelle Harms, Herb Yang

  • BeeperBot (BB): application, sample programs and manual; source code is included in the jar files.
  • An Introduction to Computation with BeeperBot (we cover the first 3 chapters only)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This course package owes a debt of gratitude to many people.

  • Textbook: Joseph Culberson, Janelle Harms, Herb Yang, cover design Shannon Brownlee
  • BeeperBot program: Matthew Johnson, Timothy Lam, Mark Nicoll, Adrienne Paton, and Matthew Whitton.
  • Lab Development: Nafeesa Mohammad, Stef Nychka, Rod Johnson

The programming tools were initially developed in CMPUT 401 courses taught by Ken Wong and supervised by Culberson and Harms. We also thank many students and TAs for their feedback and assistance.

Installation

Double-clicking usually works for both BeeperBot (BB) and PET, on most Apple (i.e., Mac) and Windows computer.

Troubleshooting

INSTALLING JAVA

If double-clicking does not work, try installing the latest version of Java.

  1. Download and install the most recent version of Java JDK
  2. If you already have Java installed, try uninstalling and reinstalling to make sure that you have the most recent version
  3. Try double-clicking your .jar file again

CREATING A BATCH FILE (WINDOWS)

This should only be needed for some Windows machines; this does not apply to Macs.

If after trying the above things still don't work, attempt the following, which uses a batch file (If you're installing PET, then replace BeeperBot.jar with PET.jar in the instructions below)

  1. Open Notepad (Start menu > Notepad)
  2. In Notepad, type
    java -jar BeeperBot.jar
    • If later on you find out that doesn't work, try
      "C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre7\bin\java.exe" -jar BeeperBot.jar
    • Change the directory to where java.exe is placed in your computer.
      The above is for a 64 bit Windows 7 machine; for a 32 bit, you'll likely need to have Program Files instead of Program Files (x86)
  3. Go to the File menu, click Save As, and in the Save as type field, select All Files.
  4. Save the file as startBB.bat
  5. Make sure startBB.bat and BeeperBot.jar are in the same directory, e.g., your Desktop.
  6. Double-click on startBB.bat, which should launch BB.

ON MACS (BEEPERBOT ONLY)

If the above has not worked, check the version of your Mac and try one of the following versions.

Once downloaded, just double-click on it like described above.

CONTACT THE HELP DESK

If this still doesn't work, go to the Help Desk or a TA for help.

Note there are other ways to get BB to work, but they are equally complex and more dangerous to your operating system.