[Microbit-Python] The BBC reveal the device to the media

[David Whale]

Hi Nicholas,

I'm not ignoring you lot, just been *very* busy these last few days, from
all angles, and will be still for a week or so, sorry!

I'm thinking through the proposals to think what I could add to the already
excellent comments and observations made by others.

I think, still, I'm really drawn to the power of having a blocks like
interface with a "show code" button that shows the python, to provide a
smooth and natural transition for coders from a visual paradigm to a text
paradigm - think of it as the python equivalent of the web "view source"
where people look behind the scenes on a web page, work out how it works,
start hacking their own html, get into a bit of javascript, get into a bit
of php, and many get into computing that way.

There is a subtle but important difference between a "show-code" option
(Michael's origional blockly) and a "convert forwards only" option (blocks
to touch develop one way conversion) - both with their own benefits and
pitfalls and differences.


I also need to personally think through whether two pages of code on a
128/256K device ("twice the size of game of life") without the bluetooth
connectivity, gives enough opportunity for doing useful and engaging things
with that amount of code. I'm not sure about that one yet, to be honest. It
seems we've burnt a large amount of code space to get a tiny amount of user
app space. One way to frame this might be to roughly calculate what
percentage of flash is the interpreter and runtime, and what percentage is
user code - how does this compare to the existing blocks or touch develop
solutions (hard to compare as code density might differ significantly). But
if it's 95%/5%, interpreter/user app, I'm really not sure about that. Be
nice to have a ball park figure on the split at present. Is that all
interpreter, or is it libraries too - I''m guessing it's not possible to
strip unused libraries due to the dynamic nature of python?


Could we show the python experience to a bunch of 11 year olds and a bunch
of school teachers, perhaps, and see what they think of it - that is the
target audience, after all?


There's also *something* there that Michael mentioned about the contained
experience of working inside the ecosystem of a website with all the
interactions and sharing that happens, compared to an offline editor with
an independent community on a separate page - I've not quite thought
through both sides of that yet properly. There definitely is something
about the immersive experience of the community and tutorials and examples
and editor all being in one place, that I hadn't really seen before this
BBC project - there's a "thing" there I'm trying to form some view on, but
it does feel very exciting when you use it.

The TouchDevelop shared online library feature is a stroke of genius that I
hadn't realised until I experienced it first hand this week - perhaps an
option to "import" and it does a live search for community contributed
libraries and just includes them for use like the TouchDevelop experience
does? Just a thought. The immutable published library concept gives
educators in particular a way to focus learners on the important learning
at the top of the app, whilst giving them drill-down to the detail if they
want it - I've learnt more about TouchDevelop by clicking through the
library detail than I have by reading any documentation, to be honest.

There is also that thing about teachers have spent a couple of years
up-skilling in Python, and something new and different is coming along. It
would be good to provide a range of directions both in and out of the
experience for learners and teachers, so they both be attracted to it, and
drawn onwards to the next thing, in new and interesting ways. Python could
be as much a "draw in" to the experience, as well as a "draw out and
onwards" to bigger systems like Raspberry Pi, for example.

Still thinking, but these are my initial thoughts for now. Sorry to be less
than helpful at this stage.

David,


___________________________________________________________
David Whale, B.Sc (Hons), MIET
*Software Engineer and IET Schools Liaison Officer, Essex*

email:  dwhale at theiet.org
twitter: @whaleygeek
blog:  blog.whaleygeek.co.uk

Co-author of the new book "Adventures in Minecraft" <http://amzn.to/ZGfxZG>
- lets get kids coding!


On 7 July 2015 at 14:46, Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll at ntoll.org> wrote:

> On 07/07/15 14:20, David Whale wrote:
> > Tony hall mentioned python several times and so did dara o brien at the
> > public launch today.
> >
>
> Great stuff! I hope it went well.
>
> David, would be interesting to get your perspective on the Python work
> we're doing.
>
> *Everyone* - David is the point man for the Institution of Engineering
> and Technology (who are also a BBC partner). David also writes awesome
> books on Minecraft and Python programming.
>
> :-)
>
> N.
>
>
>
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> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/microbit
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