Summary of ARDUINO BRINGS A MICROPYTHON IDE
The article discusses the release of the Arduino Lab for MicroPython, a new standalone app designed to provide a beginner-friendly MicroPython IDE with features like code editing and file management via serial port. It supports boards like ESP8266 and aims to combine Arduino's accessible hardware ecosystem with MicroPython's powerful programming environment, although it is still experimental without syntax checks. This development is seen as a positive step toward making microcontroller programming faster and more accessible, potentially leading to a future MicroPython library manager.
Parts used in the Arduino Lab for MicroPython:
- Arduino IDE-shaped app
- Serial port connection
- ESP8266-based boards
Both Arduino and MicroPython are giants when it comes to the electronics education area, and each one of them represents something you can’t pass up on as an educator. Arduino offers you a broad ecosystem of cheap hardware with a beginner-friendly IDE, helped by forum posts explaining every single problem that you could and will stumble upon. MicroPython, on the other hand, offers a powerful programming environment ripe for experimentation, and doesn’t unleash a machine gun fire of triangle brackets if you try to parse JSON slightly incorrectly. They look like a match made in heaven, and today, from heaven descends the Arduino Lab for MicroPython.
This is not an Arduino IDE extension – it’s a separate Arduino IDE-shaped app that does MicroPython editing and uploads code to your board from a friendly environment. It works over a serial port, and as such, the venerable ESP8266-based boards shouldn’t be be left out – it even offers file manager capabilities! Arduino states that this is an experimental effort – it doesn’t yet have syntax checks, for instance, and no promises are made. That said, it already is a wonderful MicroPython IDE for beginner purposes, and absolutely a move in the right direction. Want to try? Download it here, there’s even a Linux build!
High-level languages let you build projects faster – perfect fit for someone getting into microcontrollers. Hopefully, what follows is a MicroPython library manager and repository! We’ve first tried out MicroPython in 2016, and it’s come a long way since then – we’ve seen quite a few beginner-friendly MicroPython intros, from a gaming handheld programming course, to a bipedal robot programming MicroPython exploration. And, of course, you can bring your C libraries with you.
Source: ARDUINO BRINGS A MICROPYTHON IDE
