
Arduboy: The Interactive Digital Business Card - yammesicka
http://bateske.com/arduboy/
======
ddod
I think there's a great opportunity for someone to release a simple,
programmable Gameboy-esque device that runs Javascript or something similarly
noob-friendly to give people (and kids) a less friction-filled path to
learning programming. This might not be the device for that, but it's a really
cool project nevertheless.

~~~
Morgawr
Javascript... what an odd choice. Definitely not my first choice for a
language used to teach programming to beginners, nor to run on embedded
systems.

ps: I'm well aware there are embedded systems for Javascript and it is being
taught on codecademy to beginners, I'm just saying it seems weird to me.

~~~
egypturnash
The pros: It's RIGHT THERE. It's in your browser, complete with console and
debugger. You don't need to download a compiler or interpreter or anything to
play with it. You don't have to visit any particular site. All you need is
Notepad or TextEdit.

It's about as close as you're going to come to this nowadays:

    
    
          **** COMMODORE 64 BASIC V2 ****
       64K RAM SYSTEM  38911 BASIC BYTES FREE
      READY.
      ◼︎
    

BASIC sucked in a lot of ways, but it was _right there_ , inviting you to play
around.

~~~
pekk
C64 BASIC was all there was for many people, otherwise computers were mostly
not affordable and available to children. There just wasn't real choice, so we
used what we had. If structured BASIC or better had been shipped that would
have been the thing to use instead, without a doubt.

Today there's a choice. We can't pretend we are forced. Now there are many
MUCH better things. And if we intentionally choose hardware which enforces the
use of something bad to start with, when we could put all kinds of things on
all kinds of hardware today - it isn't because we were forced but because we
are stupid. People with experience use Javascript because they have to in
order to program the browser (due to a completely artificial monopoly) and
they have the ability to adapt to it. Maybe they even develop stockholm
syndrome and forget all the ways it's broken and missing basic capabilities.
But that doesn't mean it's a good choice among starting languages when we have
a free choice.

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reportingsjr
Why not just switch to KiCAD rather than use eagle? I have found KiCAD is far
superior at this point and is open source. They mostly have the ability to use
eagle libraries in KiCAD now (although it is in alpha I think).

Maybe they could donate the $820 to support KiCAD?

~~~
patrickyeon
EAGLE is the tool they know. All their files are already in EAGLE's format,
and even if KiCAD can "mostly" do import, that's not quite a matter of being
able to pick up your design and keep on going.

In the electronics world, tool lock-in is a very real, strong, and painful
force.

~~~
reportingsjr
I don't have pity for people who choose to lock themselves in to tools and
then ask for $800 because of it. Oh well, their choice! It really isn't much
work to switch to KiCAD.

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thaJeztah
Nice!

