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Totally OT: Parallax Staff opinion of Propeller Developement — Parallax Forums

Totally OT: Parallax Staff opinion of Propeller Developement

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
edited 2008-01-29 19:14 in Propeller 1
The fun of this little chip is the fact that it's development is moving faster than greased lightining.
I'm just a little more than curious how the Parallax staff sees this development. Has it's applications
surprised you guys with the 101 methods everyone has found to push this little monster, or do you
guys sit back and say, "Oh, they finally caught that..." [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Perhaps you should hold the PropII back just a little bit since the Original is still blazing forward..
(JUST KIDDING!)

{ducking thrown objects from the rest of the forum members..}
OBC

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Post Edited (Oldbitcollector) : 1/27/2008 7:50:13 PM GMT

Comments

  • hippyhippy Posts: 1,981
    edited 2008-01-25 20:46
    "Parallax Staff opinion of Propeller" ... before I read your full post I was looking forward to seeing a follow-up post along the lines of "I think it's rubbish, but Chip made us do it" smile.gifsmile.gif
  • James LongJames Long Posts: 1,181
    edited 2008-01-25 20:59
    hippy said...
    "Parallax Staff opinion of Propeller" ... before I read your full post I was looking forward to seeing a follow-up post along the lines of "I think it's rubbish, but Chip made us do it" smile.gifsmile.gif
    You know.....after reading that about four times....I came to an interesting conclusion.

    If any one of the Parallax guys thought that at first (before market release), they would never admit to it now.

    James L

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  • Mike_GTNMike_GTN Posts: 106
    edited 2008-01-26 00:05
    Nah Chip would have said we did one hell of a job, but we did get the PAL video thing totally wrong. PropII might consider a market outside of the US and correct this oversight.
  • AleAle Posts: 2,363
    edited 2008-01-26 17:54
    There is an object that gives a as-stable-as-NTSC PAL picture. I read about it here smile.gif
  • deSilvadeSilva Posts: 2,967
    edited 2008-01-26 18:00
    This work-around works just by chance, and only on a few TV sets. I intended to no longer comment on that, but as this is OT - I took the chance smile.gif
  • ColeyColey Posts: 1,110
    edited 2008-01-27 12:44
    deSilva said...
    This work-around works just by chance, and only on a few TV sets.

    Yeah, the perfect words of encouragement we need to spur us on to find the solution !!! nono.gif

    And I beg to differ on the number on TV sets it works on, it works on almost every one I have tried it on and I have tried it on about 20 different types.

    I'd give it a 90% hit rate!

    I'ts not perfect by any means (or finished for that matter) but it's better than it was, there is no need to rubbish it!

    To get back to the original thread I bet the Parallax staff think.......

    Wow, these guys have pushed this little chip further than we could ever have imagined, aren't we lucky to have such a creative, vibrant and helpful community that goes with it!

    And deSilva, I'm sure that includes you too! smilewinkgrin.gif

    Coley
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-27 13:11
    deSilva,

    Go buy a real TV [noparse]:)[/noparse],

    As Ale put it "gives a as-stable-as-NTSC PAL picture.",

    To be honest, I thought I was doing us PAL people a favour by making it stop the roll for as many TV's as possible,
    in what must have been an original typo as all I did was changed a 0 to a 4,

    But if your truly not happy with it, go get a REAL TV that handles the fix, or a REAL ADchip that does PAL.

    So stop winging about this fantastic little chip, OR fix it yourself, until your at a point where your "HAPPY" with the outcome and let everyone enjoy it.
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-27 13:13
    PS, OBC, sorry to rant on your thread [noparse]:D[/noparse] Yeah I've wondered what Parallax thought about it's great progression, and it's many many many many uses [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    oh, and don't mention delaying PropII again lol <throws chair at obc> [noparse]:)[/noparse]
  • deSilvadeSilva Posts: 2,967
    edited 2008-01-27 13:56
    Sorry, Baggers, I truely should have abstained from commenting :-(
    I am happy with using NTSC which all low cost TV-monitors understand. The main reason I do this is the mismatch of PAL lines and monitor lines. The second reason is the mismatch of common Propeller crystals and PAL color clock.

    Again, sorry, it's just me! And it's definitely not your fault that your patch does not work with 1% of PAL monitors.
  • AleAle Posts: 2,363
    edited 2008-01-27 14:12
    OT: There are PAL TVs that use NTSC color burst freq (3.58 MHz) instead. In those, PAL maybe easier to handle/produce. That is called PAL-N and PAL-NC smile.gif
    I do not have access to one of those though.
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-27 17:15
    I guess us in the UK have TV's that accept pretty much any signal, I don't know why manufacturers have to make different region TV's, they should ALL me multi functional, I don't know why US tv's don't display PAL? it's just crazy, it's surely the same model TV's as PAL ones, eg, from Sony, Panasonic, LG, Sharp, etc, then again, maybe that's why TV's are a LOT more expensive in UK [noparse]:([/noparse] lol
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-27 17:18
    PS, deSilva, out of curiosity, does Ai_Generic display driver work any better or worse with deSilva's TV, in PAL mode?
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2008-01-27 18:53
    Since the Parallax staff is remaining tight-lipped about the their thoughts on Propeller development,
    I'm Ok with the hijacking of this thread. I'm also curious if a PAL solution for AiGeneric could be
    easily created as others have started to use it for projects as well.

    {a chair sails by..}
    OBC

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  • JT CookJT Cook Posts: 487
    edited 2008-01-27 19:30
    One thing that I am really impressed with about the Prop is the gaming aspect of it. It is really the first standalone micro that has similar characteristics of the 8-bit computers/home console/arcade machines of the 80's with nothing more than the Prop itself and an eeprom. Really the only hardware setup before that was some pic pong games,FPGA setup, or using a full blown hardware design with multiple ICs.

    And of course it is always fun bringing in a peice of standalone hardware, hook it up to the TV, and run your games. Standalone hardware is always impressive, even if you are showing it off to people who aren't geeks.
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-27 20:22
    JT Cook, Yeah, I feel the same about this chip, and it's simplicomplexity ( yes, that's a NEW word I just made up to describe the propeller [noparse]:)[/noparse] ) the simplicity, of it, the fact that it doesn't really have any dedicated hardware, other than the video serialiser, yet, it can easily replicate many 8 bit computers/home console/classic arcade machines, like you say, and PIC pong, although great, for what it was running on, a microcontroller, the propeller, has WAY outperformed it, not only with colour, but the speed to display charactermap or bitmap displays with sprites over the top, it truely is a great chip, I'm always learning new ways of doing stuff with it, like I've said before, I write games for PS3, yet I love and prefer writing games for the propeller, it's just so much more fun, brings back the good ol' days of coding for me, that's for sure. and breathe lol.
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,260
    edited 2008-01-27 21:42
    Simplexity!

    Perfect.

    I think the staff reaction is: "Sweet! Chip was right on! We've got another killer product to carry Parallax forward through the next 10 years."

    Hope so. The stories about Chip showing the thing off to people with indifferent looks, makes all the fun people are having today, pretty sweet, IMHO.

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  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2008-01-27 21:52
    indifferent looks? Like those I get from some of my friends who figure I've jumped over the nerd cliff? [noparse]:)[/noparse] !!

    Worth every un-understood look!

    OBC

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    Getting started with the Protoboard? - Propeller Cookbook
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  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2008-01-27 22:06
    When Chip first showed it to me, I was more dumbfounded than anything else. I could hardly comprehend what he had created. I suspect that others that are even less of a nerd than I am would be totally lost. And we fear what we don't understand.

    I really screwed up by not attending the Propeller roll-out at parallax. I missed a chance to meet alot of the people on the forum. Plus I missed learning more about the propeller. Oh well, I'll not make that mistake again.

    Bean.

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    ·
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2008-01-28 02:50
    In flights of fancy, here's what I dream is running through the great minds at Parallax:

    [noparse][[/noparse]Here the screen gets all wibbly-wobbly as the scene segues to Rocklin.]
    In my imagination. the Parallax gurus said...
    "Wow, we've really got a winner with the Propeller, and the users LOVE it! What's more, there's a lot of talent out there in User Land, and we need to accommodate that talent by making our development tools as open-ended as possible. Who knows what these folks can create given extensible tools? Command line access? Great idea! Preprocessor hooks? Yowza! Gosh, maybe even port everything to Linux and OS/X while we're at it! We've done one heckuva job so far and deserve all the accolades; but we've got a lot on our plate now, and Chip is busy with the Prop II. Maybe it's time to loosen our grip and give the users a chance to run with this thing. Heck, maybe even open-source the IDE and compiler! The byte code interpreter, too — the whole enchilada!"
    [noparse][[/noparse]Wibbly-wobbly again, segueing back to reality.]

    Okay, okay, that's a bit over the top. I did say "flights of fancy", didn't I? smile.gif

    -Phil
  • James LongJames Long Posts: 1,181
    edited 2008-01-28 03:19
    Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) said...
    In flights of fancy, here's what I dream is running through the great minds at Parallax:

    [noparse][[/noparse]Here the screen gets all wibbly-wobbly as the scene segues to Rocklin.]
    In my imagination. the Parallax gurus said...
    "Wow, we've really got a winner with the Propeller, and the users LOVE it! What's more, there's a lot of talent out there in User Land, and we need to accommodate that talent by making our development tools as open-ended as possible. Who knows what these folks can create given extensible tools? Command line access? Great idea! Preprocessor hooks? Yowza! Gosh, maybe even port everything to Linux and OS/X while we're at it! We've done one heckuva job so far and deserve all the accolades; but we've got a lot on our plate now, and Chip is busy with the Prop II. Maybe it's time to loosen our grip and give the users a chance to run with this thing. Heck, maybe even open-source the IDE and compiler! The byte code interpreter, too — the whole enchilada!"
    [noparse][[/noparse]Wibbly-wobbly again, segueing back to reality.]

    Okay, okay, that's a bit over the top. I did say "flights of fancy", didn't I? smile.gif

    -Phil
    Phil,

    Your always good for a laugh.

    James L

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    Partner/Designer
    Lil Brother LLC (SMT Assembly Services)
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-28 09:26
    ROFL Phil [noparse]:)[/noparse] very real, I was in there... a fly on the wall so to say lol.
    ya never know, as you don't get if you don't ask.

    and ask, and ask and pester lol
  • rjo_rjo_ Posts: 1,825
    edited 2008-01-28 13:55
    I'll tell you what the staff is thinking... "I'm exhausted. I hope the PropII never comes out. I don't care if 99% of PAL tv's don't work. I want a drink and I want these guys to leave us alone for about a microsecond."

    On the other hand... I think Chip is more than pleased that it didn't take 5 years for everyone to catch on to his logic[noparse]:)[/noparse] and "Gosh... they got it. I wonder if they would understand...."

    Rich

    ILMP
  • Jeff MartinJeff Martin Posts: 756
    edited 2008-01-28 22:35
    [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    We are very pleased with the level of excitement and participation all of you (ie: the Propeller community) have shown with the Propeller.· We knew that, just like with the BASIC Stamp, people would find amazing things to do with it that we could only barely imagine in the beginning.· You've succeeded in putting a smile on our face and you've re-energized our imaginations.

    We've been excited, surprised, and satisfied with many of the efforts you've put forth and we expect it to continue with gusto as more and more objects are graciously shared, demos are shown, videos are made, and topics are discussed.

    Though it hasn't always been said, our underlying goal as a company has always been to make great products that empower users and fosters creativity.· So the results of the Propeller Chip product in this almost 2-year's time is fantastic!· Thank you!

    Now... back to work.

    [noparse]:)[/noparse]


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    --Jeff Martin

    · Sr. Software Engineer
    · Parallax, Inc.

    Post Edited (Jeff Martin (Parallax)) : 1/29/2008 12:17:16 AM GMT
  • BaggersBaggers Posts: 3,019
    edited 2008-01-28 22:55
    Aye Aye Cap'n lol
  • Ym2413aYm2413a Posts: 630
    edited 2008-01-29 17:31
    Thanks Jeff. [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2008-01-29 17:35
    Bet money Chip has a few things that we haven't discovered yet... [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    OBC

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    New to the Propeller?

    Getting started with the Protoboard? - Propeller Cookbook
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  • Fred HawkinsFred Hawkins Posts: 997
    edited 2008-01-29 19:14
    Jeff Martin (Parallax) said...

    [noparse]:)[/noparse]

    We are very pleased with the level of excitement and participation all of you (ie: the Propeller community) have shown with the Propeller.· We knew that, just like with the BASIC Stamp, people would find amazing things to do with it that we could only barely imagine in the beginning.· You've succeeded in putting a smile on our face and you've re-energized our imaginations.

    We've been excited, surprised, and satisfied with many of the efforts you've put forth and we expect it to continue with gusto as more and more objects are graciously shared, demos are shown, videos are made, and topics are discussed.

    Though it hasn't always been said, our underlying goal as a company has always been to make great products that empower users and fosters creativity.· So the results of the Propeller Chip product in this almost 2-year's time is fantastic!· Thank you!

    Now... back to work.

    [noparse]:)[/noparse]


    Rats nothing to see here.

    Foiled again!

    (troll herding patent lawyer)
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