Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.forth > #52119

Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now?

Show all headers | View raw

rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> writes:
> If the MicroBit gets kids interested in programming and
> microcomputers, then it is a good thing....  In that light it is not
> surprising some of those here are telling that they are not impressed
> with the high price of the Microbit or the lack of the features they
> desire.

The intended student audience is getting them for free, so that's great
from their perspective.  It's just somewhat expensive for those of us
who have to pay for our own boards.

I do think the Microbit processor has too little capacity for its
intended audience, given that part of the educational plan is for
students to run MicroPython on it.  I've played with MicroPython a
little myself and have chatting with its developer community.
Apparently the Microbit is just barely powerful enough to run
MicroPython, and MicroPython had to be hacked rather mercilessly to get
it to fit in the Microbit.  So it would be significantly better for
MicroPython if the Microbit cpu had more ram, say 32k instead of 16k
(the 256k flash is sufficient).

From a Forth POV, the Microbit is great except for its cost.  256k of
flash and 16k of ram is enough to run a rather fancy Forth including a
code editor, blocks, etc.  It's also fine for embedded C, having far
more flash and ram than the popular Atmega328 used in the Arduino.  If
they sold it for $5 instead of $17, I'd buy a pile of them, but as it is
there are other boards that I see as more cost effective.

The ESP8266 has no usable on-chip flash afaik, so the cheap ESP modules
flooding Aliexpress generally have 4MB of SPI flash on the module.
Something like that on the Microbit (or an SD socket) would be terrific.
The ESP8266 itself has about 36k of usable ram and people are running
full MicroPython on it quite nicely.  Those boards are well under $5
(Wemos D1, see wemos.cc) so they're popular in the MicroPython crowd.

I expect if the Microbit gains traction there will be new and better
versions in the future.  It may get more interesting then.

Back to comp.lang.forth | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-07 11:24 -0500
  Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-08 11:57 -0700
    Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-09-09 13:48 -0700
      Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-10 00:19 -0700
        Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-09-10 00:48 -0700
          Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-10 04:06 -0700
            Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Jan Coombs <jenfhaomndgfwutc@murmic.plus.com> - 2016-09-10 13:37 +0100
              Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-10 08:47 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-10 11:45 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-10 21:44 +0200
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-10 15:10 -0500
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-09-10 19:24 -0700
              Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-10 21:31 +0200
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-10 13:27 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-16 16:32 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-16 16:37 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-16 19:46 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-16 18:40 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-16 22:20 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-18 15:30 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-18 16:42 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-18 18:30 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-10-18 23:23 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-19 03:23 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-19 00:51 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-19 01:08 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2016-10-19 17:19 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-20 00:43 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Jan Coombs <jenfhaomndgfwutc@murmic.plus.com> - 2016-10-20 10:00 +0100
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-20 19:09 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-10-21 13:14 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-21 16:31 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2016-10-22 14:28 -0400
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-22 12:14 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-12-22 02:21 -0800
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-12-23 11:47 -0800
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? lawrencedo99@gmail.com - 2016-10-21 15:07 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-22 00:09 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-10-16 17:17 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Jan Coombs <jenfhaomndgfwutc@murmic.plus.com> - 2016-09-10 22:10 +0100
            Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-10 10:58 -0500
              Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-11 00:03 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-11 01:10 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? albert@cherry.spenarnc.xs4all.nl (Albert van der Horst) - 2016-09-11 11:23 +0200
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2016-09-11 12:27 -0700
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Cecil Bayona <cbayona@cbayona.com> - 2016-09-11 14:57 -0500
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? Andrew Haley <andrew29@littlepinkcloud.invalid> - 2016-09-11 05:13 -0500
                Re: BBC MicroBit has arrived - which Forth in Python is recommended for now? JUERGEN <epldfpga@aol.com> - 2016-09-11 04:51 -0700

csiph-web