Tag: WebIDE

Adafruit WebIDE – new alpha release available

News from across the pond arrived last night, UK time. Our good friends at Adafruit have been working on their web-based integrated development environment (IDE) – hence WebIDE – for the Raspberry Pi, and have made a number of changes based on your requests. This is a big update (“Huge!” says PT), and if you’re already using the WebIDE you’ll notice some changes.

We’re big fans of Adafruit’s WebIDE for the Pi. It offers a nicely structured, easy way to learn how to program, and there’s already lots of support for it (check out Adafruit’s materials or click on the picture above), even though it’s stil in alpha. Beginners should find the visualiser especially helpful; it’s a good way to work out how simple scripts really work, and allows you to see how objects are created, how processes are stacked and so on. We’ve found it’s a real aid to understanding how things fit together, and a great way to explain concepts to people who’ve only just started programming.

Please be aware that because the WebIDE is still a product under development, you may encounter bugs. If you do, please report them using the tool in the editor; user feedback’s really valuable when developing this stuff, and LadyAda, PT, Justin, Tyler and the team want to hear about your experiences.

PT says:

We now have a new offline mode that you can enable with an –offline flag when you install the WebIDE.  This mode allows you to bypass using Bitbucket or Github, and should work when not connected to the internet.

We also have a new experimental GitHub mode that allows you to sign in with your GitHub account.  This feature is for advanced users that want to use GitHub as their provider.  This can be enabled with the –github flag during installation.  Please note that GitHub mode does not do some of the automated things (git ssh key setup, etc) that the default installation mode will do.

You can now refresh the left navigator from within the WebIDE, as well as manually update any repositories you have by right-clicking on them, and choosing the option to “Update Repository”.

The full list of new changes for the 0.3.7 version of the WebIDE are as follows:

Github support
• Ability to enable with –github as the default
• Advanced setting
• Requires manual ssh key setup as of yet.
• Most commands are treated as manual mode for now (manual commits, etc).

New Offline mode
• Ability to install with –offline as the default
• need to manually commit, and push changes (similar to the manual git setting)
• Bypasses bitbucket OAuth
• Ability to refresh directories from within the navigator

• New option to clone repositories without updating remote to bitbucket
• New right-click context menu option to update repositories from remote (origin/master for now)
• New Report Bug Link added to footer
• New confirmation dialog for navigating away from unsaved changes…Save Files/Don’t Save/Cancel
• Editor is set to readOnly for any files that shouldn’t change (README, update notes), including empty editor window while navigating.
• Deleting a file or project will now also delete a corresponding scheduled job from the queue.
• Errors cloning repositories are sent to the front-end now.
• Error handling for most git commands now. Notifications visible in WebIDE for failures.
• New Error pages for any issues with the system failing to show pages. Links to ALS WebIDE FAQ for help.
• New Error page specifically for OAuth failures. Adds a button to execute a script to help set the date and time.
• Attempt to set the date on the Pi during installation to prevent OAuth errors.
• Creating files and folders will automatically open them in the editor and navigator.
• Uploaded files will always use the current working directory, instead of uploading to the parent directory now.
• git pull commands are now using the quiet (-q) flag.
• Editor setting for supporting adding a Make link in the editor action bar if a Makefile is detected in the cwd. Not enabled by default.

If you are already running v0.2.0 or higher, you will be able to upgrade (and may already have done) from inside the editor. If you’re running an earlier version, you’ll need to completely remove your old editor and reinstall again. You can find out more at Adafruit. Thanks so much for all your work on this, Adafruit folks – we continue to be bowled over by all the work you’ve been putting into the Pi platform, and we couldn’t be more grateful. We’re looking forward to seeing you when we’re next in NYC!

Friday grab bag

Adafruit Web IDE

First up, Adafruit’s Raspberry Pi Web IDE is now in Alpha, and they’ve made some improvements which I think you’ll find very helpful. The package now includes:

  • Python step debugger
  • Node.js update to 0.8 from 0.6 for faster navigation, and page loads.
  • Package node binaries with the WebIDE for faster, and easier installs

You’ll need to reinstall to take advantage of the new features.

Web IDE debugger in action – click to visit Adafruit

Crunchies

We’ve been nominated for one of Techcrunch’s Crunchie awards! We’re up for Best Hardware Startup, and you can vote for us here. You can vote once a day; we’d really appreciate it if you could take a minute to show your support!

Pinball

Mark Baldridge is taking a year out between high school and university, and he’s spending that year on hobby projects. This is one of them: a home-made pinball machine with a Raspberry Pi for brains.

Click to visit TechFruits for a tour of the system, and some video

We thought this was a brilliant project. Eben and I have always fantasised about having the time to refurbish an old pinball machine, but we’d never thought of building one from scratch – we’re in awe. Mark is also blogging his progress on his own website – check it out!

Getting Started with Raspberry Pi

O’Reilly have just published a new Raspberry Pi book under the Make banner. Full disclosure: I haven’t actually got my hands on a copy of Getting Started with the Raspberry Pi yet, so I can’t review it here. But I do know Matt Richardson from Make, who wrote it; and I know that he’s a great teacher and demonstrator, and a very engaging writer, so I feel pretty confident in telling you to go and check it out. When I last spoke to Matt, he mentioned that the book would contain a chapter on using the Pi with Arduino, which was something we didn’t include in Eben and Gareth’s The Raspberry Pi User Guide (the two books should complement each other nicely, if you have room on your sheves) – Matt’s book also contains a chapter on working with webcams. Click the image to visit the Getting Started with Raspberry Pi Amazon page.

Raspberry Jam

Alan O’Donohoe led another London Raspberry Jam last week. We’re really excited to see that his message is getting out: every one of these events seems to be larger and more diverse than the last. (Alan has started holding the events at weekends, which makes them much more accessible for kids.)

Around 70 children, parents and teachers came to learn what they could do with a Raspberry Pi at a number of workshops – we sent Rob Bishop, our roving engineer, to join in. Alan has a short post about the event, and a photo album you can have a flick through. He’s looking for sponsorship so he can make the jams even bigger and better – if you can help, please email me at liz@raspberrypi.org, and I’ll pass your message along.

Train times

Finally, here’s a project from Gareth James, a man who lives five minutes from the train station but always seems to get there just as the train is leaving. He’s made a very handsome picture frame which displays train times, powered, of course, by a Raspberry Pi. You can find out how he did it on his website.

Adafruit’s WebIDE for the Raspberry Pi is now in alpha – get testing!

We’re back in the UK now, having driven 1500 miles and been to seven events in seven days.

We’re kind of tired.

But we met some completely brilliant people (of which more in a later post – Rob is still out on the west coast meeting still more brilliant people, and will have a post of his own about the whole thing later on), and we got to see the launch of Falcon 9 from the aeroplane on the way home last night.

Among the brilliant people we met were LadyAda and PT from Adafruit.

When we saw them just over a week ago (much kimchee and beef was eaten, much beer was drunk, creative things were done with seaweed, electronics were strewn among the chopsticks and a splendid time was had by all), one of the many things we discussed was the development of their new WebIDE for programming the Raspberry Pi. In the week since then, they’ve been pulling out all the stops to get it ready for release, and they’ve just put out an alpha version that you can play with and test. Please be aware that this is an alpha release and not a final release candidate: this means that you are likely to encounter bugs and other issues. You should only dive in here if you consider yourself experienced.

The web IDE offers you a way to program your Pi directly from a browser. You can find out much more, and download the files you need, at Adafruit. If you find any bugs, please report them on Github. It’d be great if you could let us know how you got on in the comments here, as well!

New York, New York!

Eben and I are headed back to the US on Wednesday. We’ve got meetings on Thursday and Friday in New York, then we’ll be at Maker Faire in Brooklyn on Saturday. Eben’s giving a talk on the Live Stage this year about the first, terrifying six months of Raspberry Pi. You’ll also be able to buy Raspberry Pis in the Maker Shed.

I can’t believe it’s only been a year. Maker Faire NY was the first large event of this kind that the Raspberry Pi Foundation did back in 2011, way before we started shipping. Our world has shifted seismically since then; Eben’s talk’s going to be a good one. We’re really looking forward to it, and we’re looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible. Please come and say hi if you see us; we get a real kick out of meeting you and talking Pi. Eben’s talk will be live streamed on Make’s G+ page, so if you can’t make it, you can still watch.

The meeting I’m looking forward to the most is one we’re planning on doing over dinner, with Limor “LadyAda” Fried and Phil Torrone from Adafruit; we’re going to be talking about Adafruit’s amazing work with the Raspberry Pi, and what we can do together in the future. Their most recent announcement has been a WebIDE for Raspberry Pi, currently in Alpha development. Take a look:

You can read more about Adafruit’s Raspberry Pi WebIDE over on their blog.

Eben and I are also hanging around over the next week; we’re seeing some friends in DC and having yet more meetings, then we’ll be driving south, stopping at a few hackspaces on the way. I’m not allowed to publicise these events until the hackspaces we’ve been talking to can figure out if they can handle walk-ins for fire safety reasons, but you’ll be able to read all about it in the next couple of days.