Just received my 32blit in the mail. Poking around the github I don’t see any examples in lua, and im not seeing it in the github wiki.
Is the lua API landing later? Or am I just looking in the wrong place?
Let us hope there is some movement here soon. I know Pico has shifted the activity but my 32blit is gathering dust!
Lua on the 32blit has it’s own repo (GitHub - 32blit/32blit-lua: Lua interpreter for the 32blit handheld), and there a couple of examples there but it’s very much a work in progress right now, and as ever the documentation is a little behind the curve (hmm, that readme could do with being updated for a start!)
I admit I don’t know Lua at all, but extra Lua-familiar eyes on that side of the project would definitely make things better / faster…
I feel there is a massive gap between where I am with coding at the moment and where I need to be to start using the 32blit.
I’m pretty good with Arduino, CircuitPython and MicroPython but do not know how to bridge this vast gap.
I’m pretty sure there must be a good few others like me who signed up with Kickstarter expecting a bit of help getting started.
That’s a slightly different topic, but yes the step-by-step tutorial side of thing definitely needs to put in an appearance; fwiw I think they’re pretty close to the top of the to-do list as we inch closer and closer to going beyond ‘release candidate’ firmware.
In the meantime, the official boilerplate (GitHub - 32blit/32blit-boilerplate: A basic template for starting 32blit projects) give you a starting point and the Discord is full of (mostly) helpful brains - obviously as things stand it’s pretty C(++) oriented but once Lua settles down I’m sure something similar will appear (and I keep wondering how painful getting somethingPython on the Blit could possibly be…)
Thank you for considering this.
A CircuitPython version for the board would be a great help. I can do the background layer and moving sprites under control of buttons on layers above it in CP on Adafruit boards. CircuitPython for 32Blit would be a great help to others like me who do not currently understand how to use VisualStudio and C++ and prefer interpreters over compilers. This would bring into play all the helpful graphics tutorials on their site using displayio. I’m thinking it must be quicker and easier than starting from scratch - think how many boards can currently run CP.
I’d be interested to know what percentage of purchasers have managed to program something useful with their 32Blit so far.
(I did ask about CP on the 32Blit early on in the Kickstarter campaign, after I had signed up, but got a very quick, “not doing that” type comment back.)
I don’t think it’s as simple as just digging out an STM32H750-friendly flavour of CP and slapping it on (and if it is, I suppose there’s nothing stopping you from doing so) - I get the feeling the ‘official’ API is looking at a higher level.
I don’t think there’s any plan to officially support Python (any time soon, they’ve got enough on their plate with Lua!) but if enough people want it, somebody will manage to build it - I’d love to see something capable of supporting PyGame because that would open a whole new pool of users but, well, I have 173 different things I want to build for it… :-)
In terms of percentages; there are 16 different contributors on BlitHub right now - that’s people who have not only done something useful, but are happy enough with it to share with the world. Hopefully once Lua is stable / useable that will give it another boost.
Thanks for your reply. Only 16 out of 974 backers have enough confidence to make a contribution on the Blithub = 1.64% not many. I wonder what the percentage is of people like me, who cannot make a start, and having powered it up once have put it back in the box and put it on a shelf?
I know Raspberry Pi Pico has required a great deal of time and effort at Pimoroni. I’ve been using the Pico extensively since the day it came out. I have been buying Pimoroni stuff, writing tutorials on Instructables & Raspberry Pi Blog; reviews, Hackspace Magazine articles and helping answer questions on the Pimoroni and Raspberry Pi Forums. I’d love to help with 32Blit - if I could bridge the current knowledge gap. Aiming the API at a higher level will be a miss. I’d be happy with something simple that worked at the moment.
That’s a little harsh; that’s people who have not only got their teeth into developing on the Blit but actually got to the stage of publishing it (and, err, found Blithub!) - obviously it takes time to get your head around, and chunks of that 974 won’t have had the devices long. It’s early days, and I’m sure it will build.
Discord is a good place to get a lot of help; I’d be very happy to try and bridge your gap if I fully grokked what it was; it may be simply one of outlook - the Blit (with firmware) is more of a console than an Arduino, so although technically you can ditch the firmware and roll your own CP, that’s repeating a whole ton of work that’s already been done.
(fwiw, this has at least prompted me to start roughing out a basic “My First Game” type tutorial, which might at least give folk something to critique while we wait for official videos :lol:)
Thank you, I’ll be happy to try out any tutorial going to help bridge my gap. First item is setting up VisualStudio.