Hello again!
I think PewPew Standalone has a big potential to be a low-cost Micro:bit alternative for teaching children how to program microcontrollers and make simple games with it. However, it still lacks easy-to-use online tools, such as MakeCode for Micro:bit. There is Pewmulator, but it requires downloading Python and Pygame, which is less comfortable than using an online platform. So while I am waiting for my ordered PewPews, meanwhile I am developing an online emulator for PewPew Standalone using Pygame4skulpt. Your CircuitPython code is running fully client-side inside the browser, handling LED display and key presses. Here is the demo of the first proof-of-concept: https://gfycat.com/ifr/kindheartedsilveritalianbrownbear. The Pew Pew Standalone Emulator will be open sourced when it is more mature.
I was thinking about incorporating it into the latest EduBlocks beta, but it would be much easier if there was already some support for the Pew library in EduBlocks. Or if MakeCode supported PewPew Standalone. Maybe one day it could be a part of a bigger platform for educating children in less developed countries. Do you think it is a good idea?
Best wishes!
State of PewPew for 2020-04-26
******************************
News
====
* Makerfabs has published a video for PewPew M4 assembly:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5lZwVgA690
* Szymon Jakubiak implemented Conway's Game of Life to honor
the recently departed mathematican:
https://twitter.com/SzymonJakubiak/status/1251043560314613760
* A fix landed for colors on all boards using Stage -- now the
colors will be consistent with DisplayIO.
* Also, the sound buffer has been increased, fixing some sound
issues.
--
Radomir Dopieralski
I was recently pointed to this:
https://cdn.vis.ethz.ch/vc2/2021/call-for-proposals.pdfhttps://viscon.vis.ethz.ch
The association of computer science students (VIS) of ETH Zürich is organizing a conference in October with talks and workshops with the general goal of showing students exciting computer applications that they don't typically learn about in their studies.
Anyone up for proposing a PewPew workshop together? (Radomir in particular, but maybe there are others in the vicinity.)
Provided of course that face-to-face workshops are safely possible again by then, I think that would fit nicely into their "interdisciplinary" track. Especially if it can include soldering one's own device (as we did at Flick the World) and connecting electronics (as we did at EuroPython), which are probably things many computer scientists don't encounter during their studies, while Python and game programming may be more familiar. (Can you get half-assembled PewPew Standalones from Makerfabs?)
-Christian
