Early LEGO Mindstorms was sold as a robotics toy, but the interesting people immediately wanted to get underneath the toy part. Dave Baum helped them do it with Not Quite C, a compact C-like programming language for the LEGO RCX brick.
Visit Dave Baum’s old personal site
Baum was an engineer and one of the important figures in the first generation of serious Mindstorms hacking. NQC gave builders a more programmer-friendly alternative to the graphical tools bundled with the Robotics Invention System. Instead of dragging blocks around a screen, users could write text code, build reusable functions, manage sensors and motors directly, and generally treat the RCX more like the tiny embedded computer it actually was.
The language spread well beyond one homepage. Books, university pages, robotics clubs, and hobbyist documentation pointed readers toward Baum’s site and NQC. It became part of the practical toolchain for advanced RCX users, especially people who had already discovered that the official software was not going to satisfy them for long.
Baum also wrote Dave Baum’s Definitive Guide to LEGO MINDSTORMS, a substantial book that walked readers through RCX programming and increasingly elaborate robots. Examples included machines such as Tankbot, Bugbot, and a brick sorter. The book and the website reinforced each other in a way that was common around 2000: the printed object explained the project, while the personal site held software, updates, links, and whatever else would not stay still long enough for paper.
The name “Not Quite C” is perfectly suited to the period. It is descriptive, slightly self-deprecating, and assumes the intended reader already understands why something C-like would be desirable inside a yellow LEGO brick.
The original BaumFamily URL is now more historical trailhead than modern software portal, but that is part of its value. Old books and forum posts still point there, leaving behind the path people actually followed when NQC was current technology.
For researchers interested in educational robotics, hobby programming, or LEGO Mindstorms history, that path matters. The RCX did not become interesting only because LEGO made programmable hardware. It became interesting because independent programmers built better ways to use it.