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1. 

   juliandasilva
   Member

   Hi!

   I'm working on an new graphical programming environment for Arduino, physical computing devices and robots. I think it could be ported to Maple too.

   It's called Minibloq and, although it's not finished yet, it's possible to see something here:

   http://minibloq.org

   I think it may be specially usefull in schools, and it may have some interesting features as well, like the following:

   * Runs completely offline and it's portable (can execute from a pendrive).
   * It's fast (C++ native program).
   * Really generates C/C++ code, compiles it and sends it to the board's flash, just with one click.
   * Wine compatible: It even runs on an OLPC XO (there are videos on the website).
   * Expandable.
   * Modern GUI, with dockable panes, zoom, key navigation, etc..
   * Made with open source tools (basically wxWidgets, MinGW, Code::Blocks, Inkscape...)
   * Once finished the v1.0 it will become open source (MIT like license, with just a limitation: non-military use).

   I'm trying to finish a first public version (v0.4) for the end of the next month (waiting for a possible kickstarter one-month campaign).

   Feedback is welcome!

   Ah, and here are examples:

   http://blog.minibloq.org/p/examples.html

   Regards!
   Julián

   Posted 4 years ago #
2. 

   poslathian
   LeafLabs

   Julian,
   This looks very interesting. I wonder if there is room for an FPGA compilation target... I look forward to checking out your project!

   Posted 4 years ago #
3. 

   juliandasilva
   Member

   Hi, thanks!

   Regarding the targets, they can be configured by the manufacturers (or even by the end-users). This is hardcoded now, but in the first release I hope the stuff will be ready (or the like :) ). To add a target, you need to provide:

   1. The toolchain (or you can use one of the already deployed toolchais, like the WinAVR, for Arduinos, etc.). There is a place to put the folder with the toolchain. It must contain the compiler, linker and bootloader software, in command line versions, or if it's not an standard compiler-linker-bootloader toolchain, there is no proble, because you provide the commands in the XML (next point).

   2. The XML file that tells the environment wich blocks are compatible with your target (yes, we try to make the blocks as independent as possible from the targets). More on this will appear in the blog's documentation with the release of the software. The XML tells the environment which commands invoke too.

   3. The images (optional) so the environment can show the user the board on the hardware window.

   4.If there are blocks specifically designed for your target, they must be provided too.

   So, for FPGAs, if there are command-line tools, I think Minibloq can do the job. We even want to add an interpreted mode in the future to generate such things as GCode, etc..

   Regards,
   Julián

   Posted 4 years ago #
4. 

   poslathian
   LeafLabs

   looking forward to the release!

   Posted 4 years ago #
5. 

   gbulmer
   Moderator

   poslathian - are you guys really interested in graphical programming?

   If you are willing to restrict your platform to specific web browsers (in the near term) so that you can use SVG, then it isn't too hard to get going.

   I hadn't written any JavaScript in more than 10 years, and even then very little. With a bit of judicious googling, I did some small experiments over Christmas in building a Scratch-inspired SVG+JavaScript UI, and it was surprisingly straightforward. I used Mac OS X OmniGraffle to create a few Scratch-like blocks, and saved them as SVG. I used them to support drag & drop using a bit of JavaScript.

   I believe significant chunks of an (experimental) 'execution engine' for a successor to Scratch is published as Open Source.
   IMHO, if you really got the right mentality (I don't think Modk.it has "got it" yet), it might work very well.

   I'm confident you folks could get going in a long weekend, if those restrictions made sense, and you understood JavaScript.

   IMHO a browser hosted equivalent to Scratch is more than weeks of work to build, but it isn't years either.

   Posted 4 years ago #
6. 

   juliandasilva
   Member

   Hi, Minibloq is in Kickstarter from today:

   http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/791396812/minibloq-graphical-programming-environment-for-ard

   This means that the release is comming soon!

   Regards,
   Julián

   Posted 4 years ago #
7. 

   poslathian
   LeafLabs

   gbulmer,
   We've actually met with the guy from modkit a couple of times, I dont know what (if anything) may happen in terms of collab. We have current no active plans for a graphical tool, we are happy to continue watching minibloq and others development unfold. Cheers to Julian on his Kickstarter campaign for Minibloq, good luck!

   Posted 4 years ago #
8. 

   juliandasilva
   Member

   poslathian, Thanks!
   Some days ago we have reached our Kickstarter goal.
   I'm working hard to release the software as soon as possible. BTW, I don't found a way in the forum to be notified when posted on the threads I'm interested. Is there a way to do that?
   Cheers!
   Julián

   Posted 4 years ago #
9. 

   crenn
   Moderator

   The only way I can think of, is to use the RSS feed for this topic...

   Posted 4 years ago #
10. 

    poslathian
    LeafLabs

    RSS is a good suggestion. As far as I can tell there is no baked in method for email notifications on this version of bbpress.

    Posted 4 years ago #
11. 

    juliandasilva
    Member

    Thanks!

    Posted 4 years ago #
12. 

    juliandasilva
    Member

    Hi! Finally Minibloq Beta has been released!

    http://minibloq.org

    Cheers!
    Julián

    Posted 4 years ago #
13. 

    poslathian
    LeafLabs

    congrats julian! Saw it on hackaday today!
    http://hackaday.com/2011/10/26/minibloq-arduino-ide-is-in-beta-and-in-need-of-testers/

    Posted 4 years ago #
14. 

    juliandasilva
    Member

    Thanks poslathian! A few days ago, there was a post on the official Arduino blog also: http://arduino.cc/blog/2011/11/04/plug-and-play-for-arduino/

    It still need improvements to work fine with Maple boards, but we are working on it (and LeafLabs is helping us).

    Cheers!
    Julián

    Posted 4 years ago #
15. 

    juliandasilva
    Member

    Hi!

    Last week was released the Minibloq.v0.81.Beta, which is the first version that supports full internationalization. Soon I will be posting about the roadmap of the project, as well as updating the documentation with the new features. Also, I hope this week to document exactly how to add complete translations to any language.
    Here is the post about the release:

    http://blog.minibloq.org/2012/05/minibloqv081beta-full.html

    This is the changelog:

    http://blog.minibloq.org/p/versions-changelog-and-known-issues.html

    Thanks!
    Julián

    Posted 3 years ago #

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