I am helping my son transition to RobotC from NXTG - I have over 30 years experience with C and a couple of questions came up with our first attempts. Thanks in advance if this info is already answered but we searched and did not find it.

1) Why are none of the RobotC interfaces for display in the function library reference in the left window? There seems to be a lot that the autocomplete understands but is not included in the left window as elements you can drag and drop on a program.

2) Many things in RobotC seem different than other C environments I have used. For example the routine "exit()" does not exist which is the standard way for a C program to end. Also I noticed that variables are not by default initialized to zero - I know this is a bad assumption but for example "int i;" does not cause "i" to have value zero - this is common in most C runtime environments. Is there a paper or anything that describes the differences between RobotC and C?

Thanks in advance for the great product!

I don't understand your question 1. Are you asking why the "function library" pane on the left does not contain some of the functions that might be suggested to you through tool tips while you type? If so, as far as I know, the documentation is sometimes not catching up with the changes in RobotC. For me, I would consult with the code. There is a file called RobotCIntrinsics.c in the folder "C:\Program Files (x86)\Robomatter Inc\ROBOTC Development Environment\Includes". This file contains all the intrinsic functions supported by RobotC. Since this is code, it must be up-to-date with respect to the RobotC versions you have.
There are several aspects for your question 2. First, RobotC is not standard ANSI C. For example, although it supports pointers since 3.x, it still doesn't support function pointers. Also, RobotC support some C++ features such as function overloading, parameter initialization etc, however, it doesn't support class. In other words, it is not an Object-Oriented-Programming language.
Regarding your question on variable initialization, it depends on what kind of variable you are talking about? Even for other compilers such as Microsoft Visual C/C++, only global variables are zero initialized because they are created at compile time in the data segment. For local variables in the functions, they are stack variables that got dynamically created when the function is called. These variables are not usually initialized (even in Visual C/C++).
Regarding your question on the function exit(), there is no "built-in" functions in the C/C++ language spec. So in general, the compiler does not really know about functions such as exit() or even printf(). Functions are provided by the "run-time library". And yes, there is a "Standard ANSI C runtime library" that people are used to and love but for C/C++ languages specifically designed for a certain platform and environment (such as in embedded environment or robotics), there is no obligation to support the whole ANSI C runtime library. Many platforms prefer to support some but not all of the standard C runtime library functions. Like I said, check out the RobotCIntrinsic.c file and you will see all the functions supported by it.
Hope that answers all your questions.

Thanks for the fast answers - everything you are saying makes great sense and I appreciate it.

I guess the question I have left is about the function library pane - I am saying I do not see MANY functions that are in the function library anywhere in the pane - for example the display functions. This is the latest install - one would think all the functions in the library would be available there.

While I have no problem using all the diverse resources to find what I need it is not very helpful to one with less experience (like my son).

So my question is WHERE ARE THE DISPLAY FUNCTIONS in the function library pane? Are they there? If not, why? LOL Thanks again

They're on my install of RobotC 3.62.

What display functions are you looking for? Are you thinking about using them for debugging? If so, you have several options, one is to use the LCD display. The nxtDisplay* functions shown by Ernest's screen capture are there for that purpose. There are also the writeDebugStream* functions (under the debug category) that transmits the output back to your laptop and display them on the debug stream dialog. The down side of that is the limited bandwidth when your communication link is Bluetooth (i.e. if you try to print a lot of stuff inside your tight robot loop, you may overwhelm the link).

I just dont understand = on both mine and my son's systems this image is all we have in the function library window - yours above has so much more! What are we missing, lol?

OMG never mind it was the basic menu level vs advanced and super user. Thanks again guys. This is his first excursion into the world of C oriented languages beyond NXTG and I have to show him they way

Nice catch! I just noticed that yesterday. Glad you figured it out.

There's a secret Jedi level, but it can only be enabled using mind control.

= Xander