Mailman 3 - PewPew - python.org

RFC: Querying color capability in the pew API
by Christian Walther 17 May '24

17 May '24

I would like to propose an addition to the pew API and would like to hear your opinions on it: The ability to query the color capabilities of the current PewPew display. Reason: In Othello (https://github.com/pypewpew/game-othello/blob/master/othello.py), of the 3 non-black colors available on a traditional PewPew, I want to choose the most distinguishable two for the pieces of the two players. On a red-green PewPew, that is red and green. On a monochromatic 4-shade-of-brightness PewPew, that is "dim" and "bright". (The third color, orange or "medium", is used for the cursor when over a piece, which is additionally distinguished by blinking.) These colors are not encoded by the same numbers, so I need to know in which of the two cases I am. Currently (https://github.com/pypewpew/game-othello/blob/e7e93fa9844166f96441a7342d8b5…), I do that using `if 'PewPew 10.' in os.uname().machine:`. That works as long as the PewPew 10 is the only monochromatic PewPew. However, I will soon want to have it work on the Playdate, which is monochromatic as well. (`os.uname().machine` is currently `PewPew PD with STM32` there and I would rather not make it masquerade as a PewPew 10.) Proposal: It's hard to balance simplicity and usefulness. I'm not sure if the following is the right choice, but consider it a basis for discussion: There is a new attribute `colordepth` of the `pew` module. Its value is a tuple giving the bit depth of all color channels: - On a traditional red-green PewPew (e.g. PewPew Lite), it is `(1, 1)`: Two channels of one bit each. - On a monochromatic 4-shade-of-brightness PewPew (PewPew 10), it is `(2,)`: One channel of two bits. - On a PicoPew, which has a red-green LED matrix and can drive each LED with 256-level PWM, it is `(8, 8)`. - On a PewPew with an RGB LCD (e.g. PewPew M4 and presumably PewPew LCD 5), once anyone actually implements the `palette()` API (https://picopew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/reference.html) for full color, it could be `(5, 6, 5)`. My check in Othello would then become `if len(pew.colordepth) == 1:` (or, combined with a fallback for older PewPews that don't implement it yet, `if len(pew.colordepth) == 1 if hasattr(pew, 'colordepth') else 'PewPew 10.' in os.uname().machine:`). This deliberately does not encode what the meaning of the color channels is. That's because 1. it might not be known (a monochromatic PewPew does not know what color of LED matrix you soldered on it) and 2. I see no reason for a game to want to know it. You can reasonably assume that 3 channels are RGB, and if 2 are red and green then red is first and green is second, but for all you know it might also be pink and blue if displays like that exist. It also does not encode whether on a monochromatic display the numbers encode "brightness" (as on an LED matrix) or "darkness" (as on a black-on-light reflective LCD). Maybe someone would have a use for that? On the Playdate and PicoPew I can obviously implement whatever I want, but it would be nice to have it standardized on all PewPews to make it easier to write games that run everywhere. -Christian

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Newsletter
by Radomir Dopieralski 29 Aug '22

29 Aug '22

State of PewPew for 2022-08-30 ****************************** News ==== * If you own a µGame device, and tried to upgrade it to CircuitPython 7.x, you probably noticed it doesn't work. There were some changes in the libraries and internals that broke it, sorry about it. The good news is that it is going to work perfectly fine with 8.0, when it is released soon. * Christian Walther did some work on a PewPew emulator in the browser: https://twitter.com/isziaui/status/1553764336945987584 * So did Łukasz Langa: https://twitter.com/llanga/status/1559249954262204417 * I'm working on a RP2040-based CircuitPython console with a large screen: https://hackaday.io/project/186921 * The Stage library now supports PNG images instead of GIF, but you still have to convert them to 16 colors before use. -- Radomir Dopieralski

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Newsletter
by Radomir Dopieralski 10 May '22

10 May '22

State of PewPew for 2022-05-10 ****************************** Another long break in the newsletter, sorry about that, the winter was rough. But as the summer comes, everything comes to life. News ==== * There will be a PewPew workshop on Europython 2022 in July, in Dublin. Because of the chip shortage, we will be using badges from 2019. * I experimented a bit with different new PewPew designs: - https://hackaday.io/project/178061-pewpew-s2 - https://hackaday.io/project/180309-pewpew-oled - https://hackaday.io/project/177306-pewpew-slim * Using what I learned from that, I am now working on a new PewPew to be available on sale as soon as the chip shortage ends: - https://hackaday.io/project/185291-pewpew-lcd * I also submitted that project to the Hackaday Prize, and registered it with OSHWA. * There are some improvements coming for the menu program for the PewPew Standalone. -- Radomir Dopieralski

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PewPew Standalone Emulator Online
by niu tech 02 May '22

02 May '22

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!

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Re: Newsletter
by Olav Schettler 01 Mar '22

01 Mar '22

Hi Radomir, you mention in your "State of PewPew for 2020-10-09" that you have ported the pew library to the Meowbit. As it happens, I conduct a little workshop this afternoon with a few kids and standalone PewPews. Sadly, I have one board too few for the participants. However, I do have a Meowbit with CircuitPython 7.1.1 and was wondering if I could use the pew.py library on it. I have found the matrix https://docs.circuitpython.org/en/latest/shared-bindings/support_matrix.html where _stage is mentioned, but not _pew. Also, on the Meowbit, I can "import _stage", but not "import _pew". Do you happen to know where I can find a _pew.py for the Meowbit? Best regards, -- Olav -- Dr. Olav Schettler ⛵ ___________________________________________________ Pipinstr. 14 | D-53111 Bonn | Germany Phone: +49 228 680553 | Mobile: +49 160-1529500 olav(a)schettler.net ___________________________________________________

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Newsletter
by Radomir Dopieralski 25 Oct '21

25 Oct '21

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

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Newsletter
by Radomir Dopieralski 09 Oct '21

09 Oct '21

State of PewPew for 2020-10-09 ****************************** I haven't been posting the newsletter for a while, so we have quite a few news this time. News ==== * PewPew workshop at VisCon (https://viscon.vis.ethz.ch) next week. All seats are booked, Christian Walther and me are looking forward to running it. * Thanks to work of Christian on CircuitPython, the menu program for PewPew M4 (https://github.com/pewpew-game/game-m4-menu) can now restart the device before launching the game, resulting in more resources available to the game. * With the help of Gadgetoid, I ported Stage to Pimoroni's new handheld console, the PicoSystem. The library will be available in the next release of CircuitPython. * I also took this opportunity to enable support of scaling and scrolling on CircuitPython (previously scaling was only exposed in MicroPython) for the Stage library. The changes should as well be available in the next release. * If you missed it, Christian Walther had a lightning talk on EuroPython 2021 about his PicoPew: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DzvfQN9fiQ&list=PL8uoeex94UhFuRtXhkqOrROsd… * A while ago I finally ported the Stage and Pew libraries to the KittenBot's MeowBit handheld console. It's available in CircuitPython 7.0.0 firmware. -- Radomir Dopieralski

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Announcing a Python course using PewPews
by Christian Walther 16 Jul '21

16 Jul '21

I am teaching an introduction to Python for programmers in other languages using PewPew Lite devices on Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ESP8266 boards. The course is held online for now (with hardware supplied by mail) and in German only, an English version might follow if there is enough demand. On the off-chance that anyone here is interested, you can find more information and sign-up at https://fablabwinti.ch/kurse/elektronik-arduino-kurse/micropython-kurs/ . The course material is available under a Creative Commons license, in case anyone else would like to hold the course locally: https://github.com/cwalther/micropython-workshop https://github.com/cwalther/micropython-workshop-fourinarow https://cw-micropython-workshop.readthedocs.io Greetings Christian

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PewPew workshop at VIScon?
by Christian Walther 08 Apr '21

08 Apr '21

I was recently pointed to this: https://cdn.vis.ethz.ch/vc2/2021/call-for-proposals.pdf https://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

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Newsletter
by Radomir Dopieralski 27 Jul '20

27 Jul '20

State of PewPew for 2020-07-27 ****************************** News ==== * CircuitPython 6.0.0 is coming soon. You can help testing it, see http://circuitpython.org for download links and https://pewpew.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pewpew10/hardware.html#updating-the… for updating instructions. * Both PewPew Standalone and PewPew M4 will last longer on battery with CircuitPython 6.x, because the brownout detection threshold has been lowered for them. Note that when the battery is weak, the screen might be dimmer than with new batteries. * There is going to be a slight performance improvement. * The pew library and the game selection menu have been rewritten for PewPew M4. The old menu will no longer work with version 6.x, so please make sure you upgrade the main.py file from https://github.com/pewpew-game/game-m4-menu * The space freed by this change allowed us to enable AnalogIO for PewPew M4. -- Radomir Dopieralski

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