[Edu-sig] MicroPython and BBC micro:bit things

[Nicholas H.Tollervey]

Hi Folks,

Happy new year everyone!

Apologies for cross-posting. Here's hoping it's worth it.

We're getting close to a version 1.0 of MicroPython for the BBC's
micro:bit device (a small programmable device that'll be given out to
the UK's 11 year olds later this year - that's around 1 million
devices). You can learn more about the project here:

http://ntoll.org/article/story-micropython-on-microbit

Damien George (the creator of MicroPython) has really delivered on this
and demonstrated what a gifted developer he is. We've also been lucky to
have help from a small band of talented developers who have contributed
some really great work.

But that's not all!

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 we need a *simple* and easy to set-up editor
that exposes MicroPython in the best possible way (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 a teacher, programmer or developer
I'd love to hear from you for help, feedback and bug reporting. You'll
get to use the editor and I'll "loan" you a micro:bit (although there
will be some caveats that apply because of BBC bureaucracy). If you're
interested drop me a line. It's definitely a work in progress, but
progress is fast.

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. 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.

Finally, we need teacher and student focussed resources (i.e. lesson
plans and kid friendly how-tos). We already have developer documentation
as a work in progress here:
http://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ If anyone is
interested in helping create these resources I'd love to hear from you.
We have plans afoot to help you generate such things in, once again, an
easy to create and share manner.

As always, comments, constructive critique and ideas are most welcome!

Best wishes,

Nicholas.



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