We are pleased to be able to offer you the most comprehensive book on the market for Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (previously called Microsoft Robotics Studio).

The book contains a wealth of sample code and some really great simulations. We expect to continue adding to these examples, and we welcome submissions and suggestions from readers.

Here are answers to a couple of questions right up front:

Q. Can I use Visual Studio 2008?

A. Yes! All you need to do is open a solution using VS2008 and it will be migrated across to the new version. Although we have not exhaustively tested our code in VS2008 (we had many other things to worry about while getting the book to press), we have tested most of them and they work fine with VS2008. Just be aware that you cannot (easily) go back to VS2005.

Q. What about the new CTP of V2.0 of MRDS?

A. Once again, this is not a problem. We have tested most of the sample services against the April CTP and found that they worked. There is one small problem with Compact Framework (CF) code which will not compile, but we are investigating this. All you need to do is copy the whole ProMRDS folder into your new 2.0 installation folder (the DssDeploy package for the book is targetted to V1.5 and should not be installed into the 2.0 folder) and then run DssProjectMigration as follows:
Start a MRDS Command Prompt window and enter the following command:
DssProjectMigration /s ProMRDS

We do not intend to release updates to the code for each of the CTPs of V2.0. However, once the final version of 2.0 is released we will update the code on this web site.

Q. Where can I get assistance?

A. We suggest that for MRDS you go to the MRDS Discussion Forum. You will notice that we are both active in the Microsoft Forum anyway. For help with issues that are specific to this book, post messages in this form (p2p Community).

We hope you enjoy the book and that the examples help you to build your own exciting robotics applications.

Trevor and Kyle

Hello,
I have a problem to extract the sample source code under MRDS 2.0. I called the DssProjectMigration tool, but I still get an error to previously install the MRDS 1.5 version. Where is my fault?

UPDATE:
I have been playing with this and I have decided that it is not a job for a novice. I know what I am doing and what files are required, but it could be very frustrating if you are new to MRDS.

If you are new to MRDS, I suggest that you work with V1.5 for now. I will look at creating a new package for the next V2.0 CTP.

If you really want to try to run the code under the April 2008 CTP of V2.0, you must first install the package into a V1.5 installation.

The steps are:
1. Download and install V1.5 (assuming you do not have it already).
2. Download and install the ProMRDS samples. It will go into V1.5.
3. Copy the ProMRDS folder from V1.5 over to your V2.0 installation.
4. Open a DSS Command Prompt under V2.0.
5. Enter the command:
DssProjectMigration /b- ProMRDS
6. Open the sample code you want to run in Visual Studio and re-build it.

Note that there will be build problems with CF (Compact Framework) code and in a couple of cases I have noticed that you have to replace the references to MRDS DLLs.

I have also found that the DssProjectMigration tool does not always change the project settings properly. This is probably a CTP problem. Make sure that you check the project properties and in particular that the path to DssHost is correct for the V2.0 version.

You will also need to copy across the necessary files from store\media. This is a long list, so I won't include it here. In particular, you need the maze_textures folder. It probably does no harm to copy the entire store\media folder, but I can't make any guarantees about this.

Also, there are several batch scripts (.cmd) files in the bin folder that should be copied over. These are provided to help you to run the samples from a DSS command prompt, but they are not essential.

Trevor

Hi Trevor,
thank you for the reply! Due to my personal schedule, I planned to start with the topic of MRDS in autumn this year. So I will wait for your new package. In fact I installed the MRDS on my productive Laptop and I don't want to install to much different software versions.

If you are willing to spend a bit of time building the services, you can download a ZIP of the source code. See the posting in this forum about the April 2008 CTP of V2.0.

However, if you want to wait for a DssDeploy package then that is fine too.

Good luck,
Trevor