[ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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[ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
 
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Hi everybody (and sorry if you receive multiple copies),
I would like to announce a new version of Physical Etoys, now with a lot of new features:
I would like to use this opportunity to publicly thank all the people from the Etoys community for their work on Etoys 5, this latest version is much better than the last and I encourage you all to try it.
And also, I would like to announce that Physical Etoys 2.0 is going to be installed by default on all the laptops of the "Conectar igualdad" program, which is kind of like the argentinian version of OLPC (but for older students). So we are *really* excited about this!
Now that you're all as excited as we are :) you can download and try Physical Etoys 2.0 from our blog: http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/.
Cheers, Richo
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Wow! Felicitaciones queda muy chico para uds!!! Y si que se puede!!
Congrats by your fantastic job! 2012/4/20, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]>: > Hi everybody (and sorry if you receive multiple copies), > > I would like to announce a new version of Physical Etoys, now with a lot of > new features: > > 1. First of all, it's based on Etoys 5.0 so it incorporates all the > bug-fixes and new features from the Etoys release. > 2. We are now focusing on the two main hardware platforms: Arduino and > Lego Mindstorms Nxt. For the rest, we will publish a set of "external > modules" that you can install in your Physical Etoys version. > 3. Also, we now support an argentinian version of Arduino, which is > called DuinoBot and it's currently being used in a lot of argentinian > schools. > 4. We added new devices for arduino and now we also support the use of > digital devices attached to analog pins. > 5. We added two new objects that let you graph the input of a variable > across time and save it to a csv file. > 6. We added a new programming mode that lets you compile your scripts > and have them running inside the robot, in contrast to running them in > the > computer and communicate with the robot via bluetooth or usb. We believe > this opens a lot of new posibilities for the Physical Etoys users. > 7. And finally, we fixed a lot of bugs that make the software a lot more > stable (or so we hope :). > > I would like to use this opportunity to publicly thank all the people from > the Etoys community for their work on Etoys 5, this latest version is much > better than the last and I encourage you all to try it. > And also, I would like to announce that Physical Etoys 2.0 is going to be > installed by default on all the laptops of the "Conectar igualdad" program, > which is kind of like the argentinian version of OLPC (but for older > students). So we are *really* excited about this! > > Now that you're all as excited as we are :) you can download and try > Physical Etoys 2.0 from our blog: > http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/. > > Cheers, > Richo > -- Enviado desde mi dispositivo móvil ============================================ Germán S. Arduino <gsa @ arsol.net> Twitter: garduino Arduino Software http://www.arduinosoftware.com PasswordsPro http://www.passwordspro.com greensecure.blogspot.com germanarduino.blogpost.com ============================================ |
Re: [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
That is really cool. Congratulations.
On Fri, Apr 20, 2012 at 5:00 PM, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> wrote: > Hi everybody (and sorry if you receive multiple copies), > > I would like to announce a new version of Physical Etoys, now with a lot of > new features: > > First of all, it's based on Etoys 5.0 so it incorporates all the bug-fixes > and new features from the Etoys release. > We are now focusing on the two main hardware platforms: Arduino and Lego > Mindstorms Nxt. For the rest, we will publish a set of "external modules" > that you can install in your Physical Etoys version. > Also, we now support an argentinian version of Arduino, which is called > DuinoBot and it's currently being used in a lot of argentinian schools. > We added new devices for arduino and now we also support the use of digital > devices attached to analog pins. > We added two new objects that let you graph the input of a variable across > time and save it to a csv file. > We added a new programming mode that lets you compile your scripts and have > them running inside the robot, in contrast to running them in the computer > and communicate with the robot via bluetooth or usb. We believe this opens a > lot of new posibilities for the Physical Etoys users. > And finally, we fixed a lot of bugs that make the software a lot more stable > (or so we hope :). > > I would like to use this opportunity to publicly thank all the people from > the Etoys community for their work on Etoys 5, this latest version is much > better than the last and I encourage you all to try it. > And also, I would like to announce that Physical Etoys 2.0 is going to be > installed by default on all the laptops of the "Conectar igualdad" program, > which is kind of like the argentinian version of OLPC (but for older > students). So we are *really* excited about this! > > Now that you're all as excited as we are :) you can download and try > Physical Etoys 2.0 from our > blog: http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/. > > Cheers, > Richo > > > |
Re: [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
wonderful!
Can you give some details? I figure you'd have to compile the programs somehow to let them run in isolation. How do you do that for Arduino, and how for the NXT?
Congratulations! That is a great achievement. Best, Michael |
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo Moran wrote:
> Hi everybody (and sorry if you receive multiple copies), > > I would like to announce a new version of Physical Etoys, now with a lot of > new features: > > 1. First of all, it's based on Etoys 5.0 so it incorporates all the > bug-fixes and new features from the Etoys release. > 2. We are now focusing on the two main hardware platforms: Arduino and > Lego Mindstorms Nxt. For the rest, we will publish a set of "external > modules" that you can install in your Physical Etoys version. > 3. Also, we now support an argentinian version of Arduino, which is > called DuinoBot and it's currently being used in a lot of argentinian > schools. > 4. We added new devices for arduino and now we also support the use of > digital devices attached to analog pins. > 5. We added two new objects that let you graph the input of a variable > across time and save it to a csv file. > 6. We added a new programming mode that lets you compile your scripts > and have them running inside the robot, in contrast to running them in the > computer and communicate with the robot via bluetooth or usb. We believe > this opens a lot of new posibilities for the Physical Etoys users. > 7. And finally, we fixed a lot of bugs that make the software a lot more > stable (or so we hope :). > > I would like to use this opportunity to publicly thank all the people from > the Etoys community for their work on Etoys 5, this latest version is much > better than the last and I encourage you all to try it. > And also, I would like to announce that Physical Etoys 2.0 is going to be > installed by default on all the laptops of the "Conectar igualdad" program, > which is kind of like the argentinian version of OLPC (but for older > students). So we are *really* excited about this! > > Now that you're all as excited as we are :) you can download and try > Physical Etoys 2.0 from our blog: > http://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/. > > Cheers, > Richo > > to play with (as time permits) Now in case you ever need anything more industrial/powerful (but more costly) here are a couple of things I have been kept a wishful eye on for a couple of years (but I have not yet had time to play with). I share this on the random chance someone gets interested in it before I get a chance to play - hopefully early next year. http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7350 200MHz ARM9 CPU; 32MB SDRAM (64-128MB opt) 8MB RAM Framebuffer; able to drive TFT-LCDs via custom FPGA 5K LUT FPGA <---------------- Boots Linux 2.6 in about 1 second <---------------- 1 10/100 ethernet port, 2 USB 2.0 (12Mbit/s max), 1 SD Card slot $129 http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7550 250MHz ARM9 CPU; 64MB DDR-RAM; 256MB SLC XNAND Drive Customizable 5K LUT OpenCore FPGA <---------------- 1 10/100 Ethernet, 33 DIO, SPI and I2C interfaces, 8 TTL UART, 1 CAN bus $89 http://www.embeddedarm.com/about/resource.php?item=628 http://www.embeddedarm.com/documentation/articles/reliability.pdf http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/pc104-peripherals.php cheers -ben |
Re: [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Congratulation.
Project looks great. Getting a Lego Robot is on my list of stuff I want if I ever have any excess money :-) Karl
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 12:00 AM, Ricardo Moran <[hidden email]> wrote: Hi everybody (and sorry if you receive multiple copies), |
Re: [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Michael Haupt-3
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 3:03 AM, Michael Haupt <[hidden email]> wrote:
Hi Michael,
Yes, we're using the same mechanism for both Arduino and Lego Nxt. We made a very simple Smalltalk to C translator, which takes a Smalltalk class and generates a valid C/C++ program (C++ for Arduino and NXC for Lego Nxt, actually). Then we talk to the compiler libraries for each platform (avr-gcc/avrdude for Arduino and NBC for Lego Nxt) and let them compile and program the robot.
The process is actually a little bit more complicated than that because to translate the Etoys scripts, which can be represented by several different Player subclasses, first we need to merge them in one class. This is a restriction enforced by the translator which requires as input only one class with one entry point (even though it will then generate code for all the referred classes). Also, this one class representing the Etoys program must simulate the script's ticking, for which I simply create an eternal loop that constantly goes through the list of scripts and executes them if they have to run at that time.
All in all, the C code generation is actually very simple, but it took us quite some time to implement it. At first I started using Squeak's parser but then Serge Stinckwich was kind enough to point me to the Refactoring Browser's parser, which has a much simpler hierarchy of parse nodes IMHO. That, combined with the visitor pattern, is all we needed to translate the code.
Currently, the translator only supports a very small subset of Smalltalk, easily identifiable by the hierarchy of CObject and its subclasses. It's so basic that it doesn't even support blocks (except as arguments of primitive methods), polymorphism or dynamic typing (we use pragmas to specify the variable types). So it's not actually very fun to write code for it (it's more like C code disguised as smalltalk) but it's good enough for Etoys scripts and it has seemed to work fine... at least on our lab, let's see how it goes in the real world :)
When we started doing this for Lego Nxt we looked briefly at NXTalk but we decided against it because we had as a requirement to be compatible with the Lego standard firmware so that the kid could use both Physical Etoys and the Lego software to program his robot. We think we made the right choice, specially because the same code for the Lego Nxt was then used for Arduino without too many changes.
If you want to have a look, all the code is available at the following squeaksource repositories: CTranslator, Arduino and SqueakNxt. Look for the packages that end with "Compiler" in the last two. Don't expect it to be fully documented, though :)
Thanks, we believe that too and we're very happy about it. Cheers, Richo
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Re: [Pharo-project] [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Ben Coman
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 6:17 AM, Ben Coman <[hidden email]> wrote: (...)
Interfacing with Arduino is very cool. It is high on my list of things to play with (as time permits) Hi Ben, Now in case you ever need anything more industrial/powerful (but more costly) here are a couple of things I have been kept a wishful eye on for a couple of years (but I have not yet had time to play with). I share this on the random chance someone gets interested in it before I get a chance to play - hopefully early next year. Well, I don't think it's really fair to compare these computers with arduino :) but if you happen to play with one of those let us know your results. What I would like is to get my hands on a Raspberry Pi now.
Cheers, Richo
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Re: [ANN] Physical Etoys 2.0 released!
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In reply to this post by Karl Ramberg
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 2:04 PM, karl ramberg <[hidden email]> wrote: Congratulation. Thanks Karl, Lego is a little expensive but it's a lot of fun :)
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In reply to this post by Ricardo Moran
Ricardo Moran wrote:
On Sat, Apr 21, 2012 at 6:17 AM, Ben Coman [hidden email] wrote: (...) You are right - they have a different purpose - perhaps acting as a Smalltalk-based PLC [2] for implementing process control at industrial plants using IEC 61131-3 Function Blocks [1] - which would be AWESOME but at the moment just wishful thinking. [1] http://www.dmcinfo.com/Blog/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/117/IEC-61131-3-Function-Blocks--Unleash-the-Power.aspx [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programmable_logic_controller http://www.embeddedarm.com/**products/board-detail.php?**product=TS-7350<http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7350> 200MHz ARM9 CPU; 32MB SDRAM (64-128MB opt) 8MB RAM Framebuffer; able to drive TFT-LCDs via custom FPGA 5K LUT FPGA <---------------- Boots Linux 2.6 in about 1 second <---------------- 1 10/100 ethernet port, 2 USB 2.0 (12Mbit/s max), 1 SD Card slot $129 http://www.embeddedarm.com/**products/board-detail.php?**product=TS-7550<http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/board-detail.php?product=TS-7550> 250MHz ARM9 CPU; 64MB DDR-RAM; 256MB SLC XNAND Drive Customizable 5K LUT OpenCore FPGA <---------------- 1 10/100 Ethernet, 33 DIO, SPI and I2C interfaces, 8 TTL UART, 1 CAN bus $89 http://www.embeddedarm.com/**about/resource.php?item=628<http://www.embeddedarm.com/about/resource.php?item=628> http://www.embeddedarm.com/**documentation/articles/**reliability.pdf<http://www.embeddedarm.com/documentation/articles/reliability.pdf> http://www.embeddedarm.com/**products/pc104-peripherals.php<http://www.embeddedarm.com/products/pc104-peripherals.php> cheers -ben |
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