[Microbit-Python] Towards a 1.0

Mon Jan 11 04:45:50 EST 2016

Hi Nicholas,

There are a couple of inaccuracies in your comparative statements:

* (while the official web-based "TouchDevelop" is great, it doesn't allow
you to automaticallyflash the device, doesn't include a REPL connection for
live coding andrequires that you're always connected to the internet)*

1) "automatically flash": You can automatically flash the device using the
micro:bit uploader:
https://www.touchdevelop.com/microbituploader

2) "REPL" It's true, there is no REPL for blocks, code kingdoms or touch
develop. They are all compiled languages without an interpretive runtime on
the device, so this will probably always be the USP of MicroPython and I
love it :) I'm sure one day though Microsoft will implement a remote
debugger (it's not that hard, you only have to hook into the top loop), but
it's still not the same as a REPL for an on-device interpreted language.

3) "always connected": You don't have to always be connected to the
internet. You only have to connect once to get the editor cached in the
browser cache, then you can use it offline indefinitely as the compiler is
in the browser and the scripts are stored in the browser cache.

The latest statement on the help pages say that children no longer need to
log in. We use 28 laptops repeatedly without internet access and use
TouchDevelop in schools with the micro:bit, and this works reliably
providing you have cached the editor once. The kids use the new in browser
SAVE and IMPORT features to transport their code around via USB memory
sticks, which they are used to doing with all their other courses.

4) Also, don't forget, while MicroPython performs well, it is a *lot*
slower than the other languages, because it is interpreted.

I love MicroPython though, really enjoying using it!

D

___________________________________________________________
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 global bestselling book "Adventures in Minecraft"
<http://amzn.to/ZGfxZG> - lets get kids coding!
Now in English, Spanish, Chinese and Russian.

On 11 January 2016 at 08:24, Nicholas H.Tollervey <ntoll at ntoll.org> wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> Happy new year.
>
> TL;DR we need to get a 1.0 out the door asaps. If you have unfinished
> work / branches for MicroPython on the micro:bit please Please PLEASE
> can you get it finished / ready for review. Another important task is to
> update the developer documentation too since things have changed since
> the excellent initial work. Off the top of my head, there's still some
> image/display work Mark is working on, some bug fixes, the neo-pixel
> work and gestures that remain outstanding. We're *so* close.
>
> In other news...
>
> Over the autumn I visited lots of UK based Python user groups and
> teacher led events (mainly CAS related) to show people the work that has
> been done so far and so we can get feedback from teachers.
>
> The bottom line is that people love MicroPython but we need a *simple*
> and easy to set-up editor that exposes MicroPython in the best possible
> way for non-technical people such as ICT teachers (while the official
> web-based "TouchDevelop" is great, it doesn't allow you to automatically
> flash the device, doesn't include a REPL connection for live coding and
> requires that you're always connected to the internet). Since December
> I've been working on an alternative solution, called "Mu". It's almost
> feature complete while still being a work in progress. Check out this
> video for the current state of affairs:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmOxOusMvjo
>
> We need testers for this! If you're interested drop me a line. It's
> definitely a work in progress, but progress is moving fast. The repos is
> here:
>
> https://github.com/ntoll/mu
>
> My autumnal research demonstrated that we also needed resources. To this
> end I've been running the micro-world-tour ~ an international community
> of Python developers have been building and sharing cool stuff that uses
> MicroPython on the micro:bit. Have a read here, I especially love the
> robots:
>
> http://microworldtour.github.io/
>
> We also realised that teachers, developers and kids will need some easy
> way to share micro:bit output. With the help of the amazingly talented
> designer, Steve Hawkes I've done two things:
>
> 1) A very Wallace and Grommit "micro:bit-o-matic" hosted here:
> http://pycomic.github.io/microbit.html
>
> This lets you easily create and share simulations of the *outputs" from
> a micro:bit for demonstrative purposes (note - THIS IS NOT A FULL
> SIMULATOR - rather, it's a quick JavaScript hack so people can create,
> share and embed demos of micro:bit-y things).
>
> 2) We also had a batshit crazy idea to create a fun user-generated
> PyComic that can be included in educational resources.
>
> We want our resources to appeal to the 11yo target age group. So those
> with more of an affinity with visual rather than verbal instructions are
> catered for, we've decided to create some of our resources as comics.
>
> Our comics will feature "Yellow" and "Blue", the Python snakes..! (Yes,
> we've had approval from the PSF's trademark committee to use the
> modified snakes).
>
> Check out a proof of concept here (apologies to Guido - but it's such a
> lovely photograph):
>
>
> http://pycomic.github.io/?title=Testing%201,%202,%203...&author=@ntoll&bg1=bg/bbc_basic.gif&bg2=bg/guido.jpg&bg3=bg/doradus.jpg&h2=Meanwhile,%20somewhere%20in%20Holland...&s1=blue&s3=yellow&rb1=In%20the%20old%20days,%20programming%20looked%20like%20this..!&lb2=Hi,%20I%27m%20Guido%20van%20Rossum%20and%20I%20invented%20the%20Python%20programming%20language.&lt3=Now%20Python%20is%20even%20used%20in%20space,%20onboard%20the%20International%20Space%20Station%20on%20a%20Raspberry%20Pi
>
> Notice how the comic is specified in the URL (it's a static website so
> there's no backend and state is stored in the query string). You're
> probably asking, "that's a bit of a long URL isn't it?" to which I'd
> reply http://bit.ly/ have an API I'm going to use to make it easy[ier]
> to share these links. Again, another work in progress...
>
> I'm waiting on some design work from Steve before releasing the "editor"
> that'll allow you to create your own comics in a simple and easy to
> share way. It's important to note that these comics are not micro:bit
> specific - they could be used for any Python related resource and for
> comedic effect.
>
> As always, comments, constructive critique and ideas are most welcome!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Nicholas.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Microbit mailing list
> Microbit at python.org
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/microbit
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/microbit/attachments/20160111/463105a2/attachment.html>