On Sun, Oct 25, 2015 at 1:14 PM, Sterling Hughes <[email protected]> wrote: >...
> I'd love your thoughts on something, as it seems like you've played > with Arduino a bunch. Is it the hardware platform, or the wiring > interface that you see most appealing? > For me, I wanted a devboard with an Ethernet port. Two years ago, there weren't many out there at a reasonable price. I needed something to act as a proxy between my ethernet network, and the dozens of microcontrollers in my house. So for my case, "hardware". > > I've gone back and forth with this in my head more times than is likely > sane. > > One the one hand, I really admire the fact that Arduino has created a > simple interface that has let a ton of hobbyists develop prototypes. > Wiring seems to me to be well adopted, and that's usually a sign that > its practical and sane. > > On the other hand, if I had the expertise to use a RTOS for > programming, I'm not sure I would need to wiring interface vs a > straight C implementation. As I'm sure you're aware, the wiring > Right. I stripped out the fancy Arduino IDE and use a set of makefiles to do all the gunk the IDE would normally do (I want my Emacs, not its crappy editor), and the cmdline doesn't scare me. Similarly, I'd go with an RTOS if I could. The Arduino's busy loop and delay() calls makes me die a little inside, every day. The clock rate should be fast enough to use interrupts/timers and still maintain external responsiveness (I have problems with my 8Mhz PICs, so *they* have to busy-loop). > interfaces are somewhat limited for more complex functions that you > might want to perform (i.e. responding quickly to a change in state on > multiple GPIO.) > > Do you think that providing a matching interface (or a port of wiring > to our RTOS) will likely bring a lot of people in? Or is having the > equivalent as a C implemented HAL that's a bit more advanced > sufficient? > Something that looks like Wiring, which can be used within the Arduino IDE. The Arduino community is still all about "sketches" and that IDE. If you want them to try mynewt, then it needs to fit within there, somehow. I think it has the capability to select different "Wiring" libraries, in addition to different boards. IMO, Arduino grew to power by using Wiring to simplify *software* for *hardware hackers*. People who tinker with hardware know little about how to write software within an RTOS. Arduino/Wiring made it approachable. Cheers, -g
