
Ultibo – An embedded or bare metal development environment for Raspberry Pi - pjmlp
https://ultibo.org/
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iammyIP
Had to dig around a bit to find out what this is.
[https://ultibo.org/wiki/Getting_Started](https://ultibo.org/wiki/Getting_Started)

Seems to be a Windows IDE in Free Pascal that renders single self sufficient
program images to use on the pi without any linux involved, similar to
Arduino.

I would prefer it to be in c and on linux, but nonetheless, interesting.

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Avshalom
Well the IDE, Lazarus, is cross platform so it looks like you would just need
to put the ultibo source some where Lazarus knows about. Free Pascal/Lazarus
are infamous for the ease of cross compiling (or they would be if any one paid
attention to them).

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iammyIP
Might be so, but they make no mention of it on the page.

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kryptiskt
One of the items in the carousel is about Linux [https://ultibo.org/ultibo-on-
linux/](https://ultibo.org/ultibo-on-linux/)

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iammyIP
Thanks.

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qwertyuiop924
Pascal is a neat language. I am generally in agreement with Kernighan's
assessment of it ([https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-
pascal.html](https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/bwk-on-pascal.html)), but most of
the problems he lists have since been fixed by many implementations of the
language, leaving something quite usable, and a heck of a lot safer than C.

It is unsurprising, in light of this, that the person who submitted this to HN
is pjmlp, a well-known fan of Wirth's languages, and a person who notably
dislikes C. He's probably also a Unix Hater, although I never asked.

Not that any of this is _bad_ , mind you (I was raised on C/UNIX, and even
I'll indulge in some Unix-Hating from time to time (It's probably the Lisp
that does it), and whether or not you like the Wirth family, you can't deny
it's interesting), but it explains a lot about why this (exceptionally
interesting, by the way) project was likely submitted to HN.

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clouddrover
> _most of the problems he lists have since been fixed by many implementations
> of the language_

Which problems haven't been fixed?

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qwertyuiop924
None I can think of, but I've long since given up on absolute certainty.

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clouddrover
Then what are you in agreement with in Kernighan's assessment of Pascal? His
assessment may have made sense 35 years ago but is out of date today.

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pjmlp
Even 35 years ago it didn't make much sense, because he deliberately ignored
the Pascal dialects that didn't had those set of issues.

Also C outside UNIX was just a mix of K&R C dialects, each with its own set of
quirks and as portable across compiler vendors, as those Pascal dialects.

~~~
qwertyuiop924
C inside of unix, which is probably the world Brian was coming from, didn't
have those problems. And he had a point about the lack of unification. As to
ignoring the dialects lacking that set of issues, I don't see how so. He
explicitly stated that various dialects had solved the problems he discussed,
but noted that such solutions were non-portable.

So I still consider it a valid assessment of the language he assessed. But I
also acknowledge that Pascal is no longer that language.

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nanolith
I think it's interesting. The fact that it's written in Pascal takes me back
to my youth, when Pascal was still commonly taught as an entry-level language
in schools.

It's probably not for everyone, and the license terms suit it best for a hobby
projects (LGPL or a more permissive license would be better), but it's neat
that it exists.

EDIT: I stand corrected. It is released under the LGPL. That is permissive
enough for more use cases when static linking is required.

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mschoebel
Umm... FAQ says:

"What licence does Ultibo use? The GNU LGPL version 2.1, the same licence used
by many other popular open source products."

~~~
nanolith
I stand corrected. I thought it said GNU GPL.

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petre
There is alaso eLua but for other (dumber, smaller) platforms.

[http://www.eluaproject.net](http://www.eluaproject.net)

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shakna
Considering the link doesn't send me there, but redirects to a showcase,
consider me disappointed.

I remember spending a great deal of time playing with the TurboPascal
compiler, and the Pi is a nice, simple piece of hardware to build an OS for.

This sort of thing could be great fun.

