ROBOTC Natural Language

**`(c) 2019 Mong Alvarez Jr.`**

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# ROBOTC Natural Language
From the definition of *robotc.net*:

> ROBOTC is a cross-robotics-platform programming
language for popular educational robotics systems.
>
> ROBOTC is the premiere robotics programming language
for educational robotics and competitions. ROBOTC is
a C-Based Programming Language with an Easy-to-Use
Development Environment.

As we can see here, the term *natural language* was not
mentioned. But they included the
natural language lately and they even
call it `ROBOTC Natural Language`.

## Simplifying ROBOTC
So, what is natural language?

From *webopedia.com*:
> Natural language means a human language. For example,
English, French, and Chinese are natural languages.
Computer languages, such as FORTRAN and C, are not.
>
> Probably the single most challenging problem in computer
science is to develop computers that can understand
natural languages. So far, the complete solution to this
problem has proved elusive, although a great deal of
progress has been made. Fourth-generation languages are
the programming languages closest to natural languages.

ROBOTC is one of those programming languages
that wants to deal with natural language.
But why?

For beginners, the main target is to guide them
through the process. There was the graphical mode and the
text-based ROBOTC but there
was no bridge between them. So the answer was the
natural language feature.

From the definition of *robotc.net*:
> The Natural Language feature was designed to
help ‘bridge the gap’ between
a graphical language and the text-based ROBOTC
dealing complex commands with ease".

Then, they did not stop there.  The even released the
`Graphical Natural Language` (*easy-to-use graphical blocks
that can be drag-and-dropped*)
to further simplify ROBOTC plus the Natural Language feature.

Consider this scenario:

*Anything (claw, arm, wheel, etc.) that is
controlled by the VEX-IQ motor has
the command `setMotor` (`setMultipleMotors`
is just a variant) to control it. And there are only
the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations.*

*Say, a beginner wants to program the robot
to move forward. Without the human-like command
`forward`, he/she might be confused because
when he/she invoked `setMotor` with a positive
power level, the robot might not move forward
at all! There is no such thing as move
forward or backward in `setMotor`.*

*Say, a beginner wants to program the robot
to turn left. Without the human-like command
`turnLeft`, he/she will be dealing with the
complexity of opposite rotation of the
wheels.*

*Say, a beginner wants the robot to follow
a black line using the Color sensor.
Without the human-like command `lineTrackLeft` or
`lineTrackRight`, he/she will be dealing with
much complexity of using loops together with
`setMotor` command.*

And so many more.

As we see here, these commands hide much complexity
for beginners.
Hence, the need to include this in ROBOTC.

## Computer Science and ROBOTC
But there is more than that in computer science.
The ultimate target of ROBOTC, theoretically,
is to make this language much like a natural language
that even when voice recognition is enabled, can follow
the commands of humans instantly in a manner
that the robot can understand the meaning no matter
how it is said. But, it is more
of a dream than a reality right now
but attempts are paving the way.

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## Useful Links
<http://www.robotc.net>

<http://www.robotc.net/NaturalLanguage/>

<http://www.robotc.net/blog/2013/12/19/graphical-natural-language/>

<https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/N/natural_language.html>

<http://www.robotc.net/blog/tag/natural-language/>

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**`(c) 2019 Mong Alvarez Jr.`**