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C
Future Directions

This appendix mentions several interesting technologies related to LEGO robots that didn't make it into the rest of the book.
These are things either that weren't quite fully complete as the book went to press or that aren't entirely relevant to a general
book on LEGO robots.

RIS 1.5

The first thing to look for, of course, is RIS 1.5. As of this writing (August 1999), there's been only a whisper of it, an off-hand
mention in the discussion forums at the official LEGO MINDSTORMS web site. It's supposed to be released in the Fall of
1999, but what actually comprises RIS 1.5 is anybody's guess. One person at LEGO technical support did say it is a
softwareonly upgrade, not a change to the RCX. At this point, though, it's all rumors and speculation; keep your eyes peeled
for real announcements.

Java for the RCX

You can program your RCX in C, C++, Smalltalk, Tcl, and Visual Basic; why not Java? The RCXJVM project aims to build a
small Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and supporting classes for the RCX. It's based on a JVM developed for a different 8-bit
microcontroller, the Motorola 68HC11. (That JVM reportedly was only 6k, which would certainly fit fine in the RCX's 32K of
RAM.)

LEGO Robots as JINI Devices

JINI™ is a Java™-based standard from Sun Microsystems™. The basic premise of JINI is that devices should be able to
connect and disconnect from networks seam-