Re: Lubyk demo feedback and Raspberry Pi

[Marc Balmer <marc@...>]

> While waiting for the linux port of lubyk to reach maturity, and because I
> promised to give feedback on the demo a couple of weeks ago, here we go.
> 
> Although there were some very nice people around the table (thanks to
> Patrick Rapin and François Perrad from the list for joining us), the demo
> went havoc (crash, crash, crash) because of... recursive data in a yaml
> file that ended being sent over the network. Damn !

And I am sorry that I missed it, I am sure you had a fun time, even with
the system crashing all the time ;)

> This at least proves one important thing: software stability comes with
> hours of usage in many different contexts (something lubyk clearly lacks at
> the moment).

And then you can design systems with stability in mind, like e.g.
operating system developers do (at least some of them sometimes...)
> 
> I promised to do a screencast but I want to augment the library
> (prototypes) before making a video. In the meantime, here are some images
> and explanations on two important new features: script parameters and
> remote logging.
> 
> http://lubyk.org/en/post397.html
> 
> As Marc Balmer and Patrick Rapin will surely agree, software combined with
> hardware makes things a lot more fun. This is why I ordered a Raspberry Pi
> (35$ computer) with the goal of making this thing the next Commodore 64 by
> adding:
> 
> - plug&play networking
> - Lua live scripting
> - distributed computing
> 
> This should make the small computer even more attractive for teaching
> purposes: every kid gets a small computer on which he/she can program
> simple games that run on old CRT monitors (snakes, ping pong, adventure,
> etc), eventually with hacked joysticks, wiimotes or improvised controllers
> handmade with cheap electronics. All this with dirty hands, spilled coke
> and noise.

That is a very nice plan and it's about the same playground I am playing
on right now (having 18 soekris embedded machines, electronics, and an
oscilloscope on my desk rigth now ;)

A NetBSD user contacted me a few days ago that he wanted to control a
CNC machine using GPIO lines (NetBSD has a GPIO framework built in), but
that he would have to learn C first and he requested my help.  He was
very happy when I told him, that in NetBSD you can control the GPIO pins
from Lua...  That gave him a quick start, I guess.


> 
> The first step is to build a debian based linux image with the required
> dependencies (LuaJIT, Qt, avahi). If anyone with linux image building
> skills wants to join in (or just mentor me in the process), please let me
> know, I am not used to cross-compilation and such.

I can't really help with Linux, but Lua I know a little and C++/Qt as
well.  As you know I am doing all these fun things with NetBSD, even the
NetBSD system installer is currently being reworked with Lua.

And about the Lua in kernel stuff, I had a lot of very interesting
conversations during FOSDEM.  There is a lot of good ideas for it now.

> 
> The era of pure digital media consumerism is reaching an end: it's time to
> take control back with a great programming language (without continue, with
> commas, without "sys.argv" and a very musical "#" to make people sing
> alength
> /əˈlôNG/).

continue without continue, tiens!

> 
>                                                                Gaspard
>