tvNiki

Looking for the original 1996 DOS version? See the original branch.

An educational programming environment where students control a robot named "Niki" through a Pascal-like language. Includes tvniki (GUI) and nikic (command-line compiler). Originally created in 1996 for DOS, now ported to Free Pascal with UTF-8 support in 2026 — 30 years of teaching programming!

Overview

tvNiki teaches programming fundamentals through a simple robot simulation. Niki moves on a grid, collects and places objects, and navigates around walls. Students write programs using basic control structures (IF/THEN/ELSE, WHILE/DO, REPEAT/UNTIL) and procedures.

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew install sttts/tvniki/tvniki

This installs both tvniki (the GUI) and nikic (the command-line compiler).

Linux (Pre-built Binaries)

Download from GitHub Releases:

• tvniki-linux-x86_64.tar.gz - Linux x86_64
• tvniki-linux-arm64.tar.gz - Linux ARM64

tar xzf tvniki-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd tvniki-linux-x86_64
./tvniki

Building from Source

# macOS
brew install fpc

# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install fpc

# Clone and build
git clone --recursive https://github.com/sttts/tvniki.git
cd tvniki
make

Running

./tvniki              # Start with empty editor
./tvniki program.pas  # Load a program file
./tvniki field.rob    # Load a field file

Command-Line Compiler

./nikic program.pas           # Compile to program.nik
./nikic -o output.nik src.pas # Specify output file
./nikic -d program.pas        # Include debug info

Robot Commands

Both English and German commands are supported:

English	German	Description
Forward	Vor	Move forward one cell
Turn_Left	Drehe_Links	Turn left 90 degrees
Pick_Up	Nimm_Auf	Pick up object from current cell
Put_Down	Gib_Ab	Place object on current cell

Sensor Functions

English	German	Returns true when...
Front_Clear	Vorne_Frei	Cell ahead is free
Left_Clear	Links_Frei	Cell to the left is free
Right_Clear	Rechts_Frei	Cell to the right is free
Space_Occupied	Platz_Belegt	Current cell has an object
Has_Supply	Hat_Vorrat	Robot is carrying objects

Example Program

PROGRAM Laby;

PROCEDURE Search;
BEGIN
  IF Left_Clear THEN
  BEGIN
    Turn_Left;
    Forward;
  END ELSE
    IF Front_Clear THEN Forward
    ELSE
      IF Right_Clear THEN
      BEGIN
        Turn_Left;
        Turn_Left;
        Turn_Left;
        Forward;
      END ELSE
      BEGIN
        Turn_Left;
        Turn_Left;
        Forward;
      END;
END;

BEGIN
  WHILE NOT Space_Occupied DO Search;
END.

File Types

• .pas - Program source code
• .nik - Compiled bytecode
• .rob - Field/world files (grid layout)

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Ctrl-F9 - Compile and run
• Alt-F9 - Compile only
• Ctrl-F8 - Single step (debug mode)
• Ctrl-F2 - Reset/stop program
• Alt-X / Ctrl-Q - Exit

Disassemble Window

The disassemble window (Compiler → Disassemble) shows the compiled bytecode with human-readable descriptions:

-->   7  DBG #5      Source line 5
     10  CLF         Check left free
     11  JNC 18      Jump if false to 18
     14  TURN        Turn left
     15  GO          Go forward

Features:

• Auto-updates after compilation
• Current execution line highlighted in blue with --> marker
• Shows instruction pointer (IP) and carry flag in the status bar
• Follows execution during run and single-step debugging

Localization

tvNiki automatically loads translations based on the LANG environment variable. Supported languages: German (default), English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic.

LANG=en_US ./tvniki   # Run in English
LANG=es_ES ./tvniki   # Run in Spanish