MicroPython: An Intro to Programming Hardware in Python

realpython.com

32 points·endlesstrax··7 comments

> Python has all the advantages of BASIC, with none of the limitations.

BASIC scaled down amazingly well. Gates/Allen/Davidoff's original Altair BASIC fit in 8 kilobytes (or 4KB for a stripped-down version.)

Unlike Python 3, BASIC also still has a print statement. ;-)

Indeed it did. Do we not remember Tiny BASIC, and Dr. Dobb's Journal (aka Tiny BASIC Journal, aka "Dr. Dobb's Tiny BASIC Journal of Computer Calisthenics & Orthodontia, Running Light Without Overbyte")?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiny_BASIC

I’ve used “circuit python” which as explained is a fork of micro python. It’s very easy compared to c. Enjoyable even.

but I often wonder about battery life compared to the lower level languages.

I've spent the last couple of months redoing one of my Arduino projects in MicroPython and CircuitPython and I'm pretty happy with the results. I think the *Python version will be much easier for people to use then the Arduino version was and that will make up for the shorter battery life.

FYI.. there's also SNEK https://keithp.com/snek/snek.html which claims to have an even smaller footprint than MicroPython for Arduino Duemilanove compatible hardware. A recent talk at North Bay Python https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llghdGHtxVQ

Keith Packard was critical to the xorg, for which I'll always be thankful. It's cool to see him tackle something like this.

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