Interesting concept, particularly for those of us who are well-versed in JavaScript:
I’ve got the Espruino board, which I like quite a bit, but this looks a good deal more polished, though I daresay that for some makers it may be too polished.
What do you all think?
BTW - pet peeve…why do folks like this think that they should promote their product/brand by having someone ride a unicycle around the office? And they guy in green pants? Seriously? Green? What’s up with that?
@ devhammer - Did you pony up the $150 for a pre-order? And unicycles are cool.
Was watching a presentation for ZeroMQ and the guy said “Life is too short to write Java” 
Seriously, not sure why, but I’ve got zero interest in J/JS based systems. I’ve written plenty of JS in my day, so it’s not unfamiliarity. I guess I know I’ve got it good in the .NET world, so if I was going to do something different than it would be non-interpreted - C/C++ based.
The price isn’t so horrible for this, considering what you’re getting. But I’d rather build my own thing than get a comprehensive solution. I guess I’m just not the target audience.
Certainly more options is a good thing.
They say on their website they are looking for JS developers who want to be makers, with you already being a maker and familiar with .NET and tools, you wouldn’t be the target audience. To me this another way to introduce “software” people to electronics in the way that Gadgeteer does.
Java is to JavaScript as Iron is to Iron Man.
Just sayin’
I didn’t take a deep look at their IDE, but one of the things I really like about the Espruino is that you can program it interactively, line by line, in JS. No, it’s not as powerful a debugging experience as the VS IDE, by far, but compared to my experiences with Arduino, it’s a BIG improvement.
I’d have to look more carefully at how their code works before I’d be willing to pony up $150 for this. If it’s just an IDE that lets you write in JS, but then compiles down to native code, that’s kind of “meh” for me…doesn’t really offer me much that I can’t get cheaper elsewhere. But I do think it’s an interesting project, and as @ mhectorgato notes, more choice is usually a good thing.
@ devhammer - I agree more options are a good thing, we were just talking this morning about how cell providers in the US have you by the “censored word”. Until GHI, I was strictly a software guy so something like Kimona would have been a good gateway for me.
Agreed. I think the polished aspect of the industrial design is likely to appeal to folks like that.
My problem with it is that I’m already over that particular hump, so $150 for something that does not appear to include any sensors is WAY pricey, particularly when I think back to my starting point with the FEZ Spider Starter Kit, which gave me a TON of components to work with at a similar price point.
Makes me all the more wistful that Gadgeteer hasn’t been more popular, as I think it’s a superior solution for this particular space. If MS had put some marketing effort behind it, I’d bet it could have been more successful (and no, having guys like me and Pete trumpeting it doesn’t really count on that front).
Yeah I know but my feelings are similar for Java & JavaScript.
@ devhammer - While marketing plays a part in success, I don’t think that is the only missing piece. It’s not like Arduino had a huge marketing budget, however, IMHO Microsoft could have done better job in pushing Gadgeteer and NETMF out to different universities etc just to get the word out. More guys like you and Pete sounding the trumpet would of been sufficient enough I think. Of course that is easy for me to say tucked away in my office in Michigan.
Every time someone equates Java to JavaScript, $DIETY kills a $CUTECREATURE.
Seriously. It makes you look very ignorant.
That being said, this is some pretty heavy-duty hardware. You could always run JS on a Pi/BBB…
[quote=“godefroi”]
Every time someone equates Java to JavaScript, $DIETY kills a $CUTECREATURE.
Seriously. It makes you look very ignorant.[/quote]
I didn’t equate them :naughty: … The point I was making was that my feelings for them both are similar:
No I have it activated. I just don’t like to develop in it so much - its a necessary evil.