So, after the live session was aired last night, honestly, there weren't any live viewers this time. But it's alright. I guess without the means of social media marketing and advertisements, the only way to get the word out to people about this online stem course is through the painstaking "word of mouth" by constantly spamming updates on social media and hoping that people would actually like, comment, or share it with their friends. ;) Just kidding. But seriously though, we don't have the budget for doing any social media advertising, so for now, we have to rely on your help to spread the word. It is also probably a good thing that I am considered a STEAM enthusiast and influencer in my part of the world. So I can rely on my influence to get people to spread the word. But hey, your help means a huge deal too!
Another very good place where we have put the word out to the community of makers is over on DesignSpark by RS Components.
Every time we have something to update, I will be sharing the news over there. It is a community with more than 665K members worldwide to date. Hopefully, by doing so, it will also help to draw more viewers and readers onto our platform. Thanks to the partnership with DesignSpark, and allowing us to put related content links on both sides of the communities.
A Repost of Last Night's Live Broadcast
So, in case you haven't watched the introductory session last night, here's a re-post of it. Note that future sessions for this intermediate course will tentatively happen on every Sunday, but the timings can change sometimes depending on my commitments in my life. But I will always do my best to provide ahead notice.
In my session, I didn't want to go too much into the basics of the micro:bit board itself because I assume that if you are interested in an intermediate course, you might already have some kind of experience with the product.
Also during the course itself, I will be coining certain terms and phrases that assumes you already know what it means with regards to both the micro:bit board & the MakeCode interface by Microsoft.
But because it is a live session, I want to strongly encourage you to always ask questions. During my live sessions, know that there are no such thing as a silly or dumb questions. And even if I am busy explaining certain concepts and can't reply immediately, I believe there will also be others around (online) that can help to answer those questions.
Alright, with that out of the way, let's do a session re-hash guys.
Session Re-hash
The very first thing that we will focus on is introducing you to the Python editor by codewith.mu. I love the website because it makes it so easy for beginners to find their way around easily. The first thing you should do is click on the "Download" button.
The next screen you will see is a set of download options that are available.
There are a number of options that are available, which includes the following environments:
Windows (32-bit & 64-bit)
Mac OSX
Python package
Raspbian (Raspberry Pi)
Note: I won't be going into the details of all of these options, however, recently, I did have the inspiration and idea of wanting to create a dedicated lab series that will focus on sharing dedicated knowledge on "Programming with MicroPython". But for that to happen, I will have to speak to various brands like Pycom, MicroPython, and Adafruit about getting a potential sponsorship from them for that course to materialize. I will share more updates about this idea in the next few weeks and month.
In the case of this online stem course, I am running a mac environment, so I will click on the "Download" button. If you have a Windows laptop, most recent laptops are already 64-bit capable, so you can select the "64-bit" download option. However, for some reason you might be running a 32-bit system, then click on the "32-bit" download option.
Once you have clicked on the download option, and allow the download to begin, you should see something like this (I am using Google Chrome in my setup here. But if you are using other browsers other than Google Chrome, check your Downloads section to see that the program is being downloaded).
Once the download is completed, click on it to launch the installer.
This acknowledgment screen should be the next thing you see. Just click on the "Agree" button. After that, if you are running this install for the first time on your system, you should see the next screenshot where it is verifying the installer. (Again, I am using a mac environment, so you may or may not see what I see, but the steps in general should be somewhat similar)
Once the verification is done, you will see the main installer screen. What you need to do now is to drag-and-drop the "mu-editor" application into the "Applications" folder.
The copying process should only take less than a minute if you have a laptop that has better hardware performance than my humble Macbook Pro.
Once that is completed, open up the Applications menu and look for the "mu-editor" application icon. If you are running on Windows, I assume it should be installed into your Programs under Start. (It could be, honestly, I haven't used a dedicated windows laptop for awhile...still hoping to raise some funds on Indiegogo to invest in a proper mobile workstation & workstation PC).
When you launch the application for the first time on a mac system, it is going to ask you for Security Permissions to run the application, just click on "Open".
Have you managed to get to this point so far? If not, go back on the steps above and double check that you have followed the steps I have provided. If you do encounter any potential trouble or hiccups during the setup process, you can always leave a question in the comments section of this blog article, or reach out to the team that created the mu Editor. I will definitely do my best to help you find out what might be causing the issues as well, but no promises though.
Welcome to mu Editor!!
Awesome, you have finally made it this far. Now, don't get terrified by what you are seeing if this is all new to you for the first time. I will quickly run through some of those features available in the editor.
And over the next few weeks, we will be working with some of the features as well. By the end of this course, you should have a pretty good handle on the editor and finding your way around.
Features Explained (...in a Nutshell Version)
Program Mode - this option allows you to select the development mode of the editor. You can choose between coding in Pure Python, or for Adafruit Circuit Playground, or
New - Creates a new Project File
Load - Opens an existing Project File
Save - Save the current Project File that you are working on
Flash - This will compile and send the program to your connected micro:bit
Files - View the files that are on your micro:bit board and on your local file system.
REPL - stands for "Read-Eval-Print-Loop". Don't worry if you don't quite understand the intricacies of the feature. Just know that for now, it is a place where you can receive feedback from your micro:bit device like the accelerometer readings, Compass degrees, temperature sensor values. It is a great place to track the readings and to know what your micro:bit is doing in real-time. It's a good place to also track how your micro:bit is responding to certain inputs and triggers. We will talk more about this later on during the course itself.
Plotter - this is probably one of the most useful features in my opinion. It allows makers to visualise certain data and readings like a graph against time.
Zoom In - to enlarge your coding view
Zoom Out - to minimise your coding view
Theme - There are three options available, the light version (default upon installation), dark version (good for night time work), and high-contrast (probably the ugliest version I've ever seen...hehehe...just being absolutely honest. But I suppose some people might actually like the high-contrast version.
Check - This is for checking to make sure that the program codes you have created doesn't have any errors. If there are any errors, it will be alerted to you via the Status bar.
Help - Brings up the help content for mu Editor.
Quit - Exit the Editor
Settings ("Cogwheel") - this will bring up a very basic and simple settings screen to allow you to set certain options.
Project File Taps - If you like having multiple project files option, this tabs options is there. Although as a professional in UX, and a thought-leader, I felt that should consider developing a split view. That will really come in handy.
Coding Editor - This is where you do all your programming.
Status Bar - This is where the alerts/errors will be displayed when you do a check.
Summary
In this very first session, my intention is not to dive into the programming just yet. I recognise that some of the viewers probably haven't gotten their starter kit and inventor's kit. So I hope it will provide you with some time to get those kits. Over the next few weekends, I will start to go into the programming itself and it will really be helpful if you have a micro:bit board to begin with.
I recommend that you follow along and ask as many questions as possible. And I also promise I will do my best to try and answer all those questions myself.
So, if you think that this blog article is helpful and informative, easy to understand, do me a favor by clicking the little "heart"/"love" icon below this article to let me know. Or you can simply leave me a comment as well. Note that if you want to participate in liking or leaving a comment, you have to register yourself as a member to this website. This is just a way for me to deter potential spammers from spamming the comments section with un-necessary ads. I appreciate your understanding guys!
Well, until next Sunday, I can't wait to get started on sharing about MicroPython + micro:bit with you! Meanwhile, enjoy your week guys! Peace!