[HN Gopher] Strype, a Python frame-based editor ___________________________________________________________________ Strype, a Python frame-based editor Author : marianoguerra Score : 89 points Date : 2022-03-15 16:05 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (microbit.org) (TXT) w3m dump (microbit.org) | tnzk wrote: | Interesting. Is there an open source and embeddable equivalent to | this? | amelius wrote: | The concept is not new: | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-based_editor | omnicognate wrote: | I've never really understood the desire to have high level | programming environments for the micro:bit - blocks and such. | I've nothing against those sorts of environments themselves. My | son has hugely enjoyed Scratch and I think it has been | educational for him. I just think it's missing out on what makes | micro:bit awesome. | | With a high level programming environment a Micro:bit is just a | very limited, cheap bit of hardware you can do a few fun things | with. There's novelty to it but it can do much less than the | desktop computer you use to program it. | | But the Micro:bit is an absolutely genius bit of kit for | exploring _low level_ programming! | | AIUI, the Micro:bit has 2 microcontrollers on it, not one. The | one you program is actually the less powerful of the two. The | second microcontroller, which you can't program, is there to | control the USB port, implement mass storage and feed anything | you put there to the programmable microcontroller. | | This means you have an extremely simple RISC chip, with extremely | simple hardware (leds, beepers and stuff) attached that you can | control, and you can program it in assembler or C just by copying | files to USB mass storage. | | I haven't started with this yet, but when he's ready I plan to | explore this in detail with my son. It seems like a perfect | opportunity to explore how computers actually work and how | software and hardware interact, without the huge complexity of | more powerful hardware. | | I mean, this should be educational for _me_! | | This book looks like a potential starting point (not published | yet, though): | https://spivey.oriel.ox.ac.uk/baremetal/Bare_Metal_micro:bit | addet0x wrote: | Interesting. Haven't tried it myself but looks neat. | | And here my 2 cents: I would be seriously surprised if Strype | didn't have any intention of integrating some visual based | machine learning algorithm to help automate coding. Actually I'm | quite surprised I haven't seen any project doing that. Github | copilot comes close but is text-based only. So no end-to-end | software design. For that you need GUIs and thus more visual- | based networks. Strype could be helping with that. | BeefySwain wrote: | Is this open-source? Couldn't find anything about that anywhere. | | Would be awesome to integrate this with some other libraries made | for beginners. | russellbeattie wrote: | I didn't realize the "Scratch" interface was called "frame based | editing" [1]. Interesting. | | My experience with novice programmers is that they have the most | problems with code syntax and formatting. The fact that one | misplaced comma or semicolon can prevent the whole program from | running is incredibly frustrating and for many, is a significant | obstacle that prevents further progress. I've seen with my own | eyes, 10 year olds break down crying in frustration over a | missing semicolon. | | But I think it's too early to "standardize" on this particular | solution to the problem just yet. I feel we need a few more | iterations before it is fully baked. | | Millions of people around the world code every day at all levels | of ability. When a better development system is devised, it'll | just naturally take over and we'll see it everywhere. This isn't | it yet. | | 1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frame-based_editor | carlosperate wrote: | Generally Scratch-like languages can be referred to as "visual" | programming languages, or "block based" languages. "Frame based | editors" would be this new combined approach. | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_programming_language | munro wrote: | This looks really great, people have been exploring AST editors | but I feel like this "frame" concept strikes a balanced between | the structure an AST editor provides, and the need for free form | text editing our normal text editors provide--I'm really | interested to see how this feels in practic. | qbasic_forever wrote: | This would be cool to have a version that creates bash scripts. | Most scripts are simple logical things like: | | - run this tool, send its output to that tool | | - if that fails then stop and show an error | | - etc. | toyg wrote: | Very interesting, will try with the kids. | | Bad naming though. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-03-15 23:01 UTC)