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  • Author Author: Former Member
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Blockly? Google? Google Blockly - wow!! How did I miss That!

Former Member
Former Member

I resigned myself to the task of finishing my next Codebug Blockly program yesterday and went in track of understanding better something that is either a bug or an as yet non utilized feature!! The right click menu for the Blockly blocks has a "help" option at the bottom for each block that opens another browser tab to a generic help guide on the Codebug website.. Trying to gather some extra info on the bug/feature that caused me nearly 2 hours worth of disabling, torture, disconnecting, anger, deleting, confusion, rebuilding, anguish and growling... lots and lots of GROWLING!!! GRRRrrrrrrRRRRR! - I randomly clicked on a block to get to the codebug help guide to try and sift through it for some clues and was surprised to be taken to the "Google Blockly" help guide?

 

I was like.."well it's very similar, and seems to have a more comprehensive instruction set - so what is it??"

 

It is Blockly. A Google product that can be configured and used by anybody for their own applications, it comes with a free Javascript, Python, <insert a few other scripting languages here>.

 

I went to the Blocky Editor there expecting it to be just as painful.. but wow!! There are more instructions, The drag and drop editor is responsive.. You know that lag that Codebug Blockly has?? The one that feels as if you are trying to drag virtual blocks through virtual treacle? Then have to sit and wait until the block you just dragged over snaps into place in case it doesn't want to and decides it wants to slip down and split up a very quick sum that took way too many more blocks than it should have and about 8 minutes and 22 seconds longer than it should have out of the 8 minutes and 24 seconds it took for the total construction of said sum? THEN THE DAMNED SCREEN SCROLLED TO THE BOTTOM AGAIN... AGAIN... AGAIN.... POX ON YOU!!

 

Have a quick try of the google editor interface... OK OK... Its still the same Blockly... I understand, I really do...

 

It's great for the novelty value, I know, its like when codeblocks and all the others appeared about 15 years ago when every compiler and target platform seemed to have it's own version... until they realised... programmers write programs, not stare blankly and hurt at a computer trying to fight off a weird boredom headache brought about by nonsensical, badly fitting, unimaginative, inefficient Jigsaws. Yep Jigsaws... and they didn't even bother to put pictures on the pieces... I found a Jigsaw today and realised it had never been out of the box.. In fact I can't recall a time that I did ever just sit there and do a jigsaw. There's a reason for that.. Jigsaws are for grannies. If you have a granny, give her the best gift She could get... Give her Blockly...

 

Sorry!! Just kind of went off on some random erm? thing. Hah!

 

Here's the link for the Blockly editor and other info about it in Googles product overview https://developers.google.com/blockly/ Really is so much zippier and reactive. As mentioned above, it comes with a Blockly to Javscript converter which explains why you can't edit the generated code on the codebug site.. the included compilers/converters only go one way... It also has an included Blockly to Python converter hmmmm? makes sense..

 

I'm determined to get this program finished!! The issue I had was solved but yeah... I totally need to de-stress my Blockly beans before I start rebuilding it all... 

Parents

  • Lucie - you've rambled a bit (in a nice way) so I can't quite understand why you are bothering with the Codebug and Blockly at all.

    I totally agree that (good) programming is hard enough without being encapsulated in a jigsaw so I've a bit lost sight of where you are trying to take your Codebug. (Mine's in a  drawer somewhere, all interest being lost once I had looked at the board and knew what the processor was and pretty much how it's connected up.)

    I think you could easily program it using a cheapo PIC programmer and a real C compiler - but I'm sure you know that - hence the question ?

     

    MK

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to michaelkellett

    Hi Michael

     

    The idea was to try and come up with some fun alternative projects using the "out of the box" toolkit, kids really need a lot of motivation to get past the "new toy, I made the lights flash a bit, i'm bored now" phase - I saw it happen for myself!! A 9 year old that loves to fiddle with things like this and the targeted projects just didn't appeal to him... next stop minecraft! Inspiration beyond curriculum styled examples is needed!

     

    There's a lot of potential possible but a lot wasted too...

     

    and a piezo speaker would have been nice.

     

    Hi Enrico!

     

    I really didn't want to interfere with that side of things hah! but Codebug does need a bit of help to come out of his shell... A run through of the compiled files, and the other compiled firmware files for using the Python methods and an i2c port monitor/logger... Might be tempted to sneak a few extra tricks onto it image

  • in reply to Former Member

    Why not interfere ? Interference and contamination is the core of the creativity image

  • in reply to Former Member

    This is from the codebug_i2c_tether CBG file. Quick hand disassembly - may be mistakes!

     

    It's obviously PIC18F code, so there should be some possibility of using the CBG format for hacking with, though it might be difficult to work out the hooks from their code and any calls to functions they have in their half of the code space [assuming the code protection bits have been set for their code - if they haven't it will all be visible from the user side and could be disassembled too].

     

    Addr Data
    .... ....
    4054 CFF8  MOVFF 0xF8,0x3A
    4056 F03A
    4058 CFF5  MOVFF 0xF5,0x3B
    405A F03B 
    405C B09D  BTFSC 0x9D,0
    405E A09E  BTFSS 0x9E,0
    4060 D0C3  BRA +0xC3
    4062 5025  MOVF 0x25,W
    4064 B4D8  BTFSC 0xD8,2
    4066 D018  BRA +0x18
    4068 0ED0  MOVLW 0xD0
    406A 5C1D  SUBWF 0x1D,W
    406C 0E07  MOVLW 0x07
    406E 581E  SUBWFB 0x1E,W
    4070 B0D8  BTFSC 0xD8,0   [FD8 is STATUS register, so BSR=15?]
    4072 D003  BRA +0x03
    4074 4A1D  INCFSNZ 0x1D,F
    4076 2A1E  INCF 0x1E,F
    4078 D000  BRA +0
    407A 0EE8  MOVLW 0xE8
    .... ....

     

    I've only given a small excerpt because


    a) they could claim copyright for the whole thing (this post is just for the purposes of criticism and discussion)
    b) disassembly by hand gets tedious very quickly [perhaps I could invent some kind of calculating engine to do it for me...]

     

    JC

  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to jc2048

    I just had a quick looksie in a hex editor to see if it was using asm and not just parsed function calls, confirmed it for future consideration and moved onto something more fun.. like designing my next tattoo!

     

    You've got so much more patience lol!

     

    I'd imagine there's PIC disassemblers kicking about with a bit of google fu..

  • in reply to Former Member

    OK. If you've already 'been there and done that' (and got the tattoo to go with it) that's fine.

     

    Was just indicating, to anyone who didn't realise it, that there was possibly a way to get code onto the board to operate additional hardware without going to the extreme of what MK was suggesting above (flashing code into the PIC with a programmer and losing the USB loader).

     

    Of course, much the best thing would be if the CodeBug people honoured their original promise and openly published the design.

  • in reply to jc2048

    Jon,

     

    we all are always returning to the same point. It seems obvious to me at this point that they have NO INTENTION to publish the designs nor anything else than sell the stuff ... And to be honest, this is a bit sad and totally against the concept they promote to involve kids and not only to epxlore, teach, understand and experiment...

     

    Enrico

Comment
  • in reply to jc2048

    Jon,

     

    we all are always returning to the same point. It seems obvious to me at this point that they have NO INTENTION to publish the designs nor anything else than sell the stuff ... And to be honest, this is a bit sad and totally against the concept they promote to involve kids and not only to epxlore, teach, understand and experiment...

     

    Enrico

Children
  • Former Member
    Former Member in reply to balearicdynamics

    most of the software side of things has "copyright openlx" on it...

  • in reply to Former Member

    It is not the first time that I see a bald group of (...) enterpreneurs, startuppers, kickstarters and son that think they will conquer the world with their new idea. Then making the count with the reality soon they discover that things are not so simple as they seems when thinking (or - better - brainstorming) So when the market is open, the product has created the expectations and the machine has started, the only possible solution become to give the hard work to someone that has knowledge and skills to do it. This is the step on how an open source community dream can be transformed after a cold shower in a copyrighted reliable bare commercial product. Trying to save all what is possible.

     

    Enrico