first 'roscore' and a question arrises- like i'm 5

asked 2017-08-24 17:32:07 -0600

moonspacedancer
123 ●10 ●13 ●18 http://Hedron.technology/

updated 2017-08-24 18:24:08 -0600

jayess
6155 ●26 ●85 ●92

~beginner decrypting the workings of ROS~ hmm.. how to phrase this.. well, partly, I'm wondering

if I need to also be in my catkin workspace before roslaunching...
what is the difference between the catkin and roslaunch?
I understand that the catkin is like a framework/build system basically for package management??
So now that I'm learning about nodes, I'm wondering, how is the node different from a catkin built package?
How are roslaunch and associated tools, different from catkin?

Comments

There's a lot of questions here... Have you gone through the tutorials?

jayess ( 2017-08-24 18:06:37 -0600 )edit

I edited your question to make it a bit easier to see all the questions.

jayess ( 2017-08-24 18:24:28 -0600 )edit

I think that the Getting Started pages might be more suitable for a first introduction, especially when the questions are more of a conceptual nature.

gvdhoorn ( 2017-08-25 02:12:24 -0600 )edit

@binarybabe: it might be helpful for you to go get a book or two about ROS. Some are even free. See wiki/Books. A good one is probably: A Gentle Introduction to ROS.

gvdhoorn ( 2017-08-25 02:13:37 -0600 )edit

add a comment

answered 2017-08-24 18:26:08 -0600

jayess
6155 ●26 ●85 ●92

updated 2017-08-25 02:22:49 -0600

No, you don't need to be in your workspace to run roslaunch, you can roslaunch from anywhere.
catkin is used to create and build packages and roslaunch starts up nodes, sets parameters, etc.
As @gvdhoorn pointed out in the comments, catkin

is a wrapper around CMake that makes building entire ROS workspaces easier / feasible. Package management is expressly not part of its responsibilities.
A node is a program and a catkin package is a place that houses nodes and certain files.
See #2.

edit flag offensive delete link

Comments

@jayess: no, catkin is not a framework for package management. It is a wrapper around CMake that makes building entire ROS workspaces easier / feasible. Package management is expressly not part of its responsibilities.

gvdhoorn ( 2017-08-25 02:11:43 -0600 )edit

@gvdhoorn: thanks for pointing out my error. I updated the answer based on your comment.

jayess ( 2017-08-25 02:20:00 -0600 )edit

add a comment

first 'roscore' and a question arrises- like i'm 5

Comments

1 Answer

Comments

Question Tools

Stats

Related questions

first 'roscore' and a question arrises- like i'm 5 edit

Comments

1 Answer

Comments

Question Tools

Stats

Related questions

first 'roscore' and a question arrises- like i'm 5