Parallax market penetration

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

This thread on Slashdot illustrates as well as anything I've seen the familiarity and acceptance Parallax enjoys in the educational market. Do a Find on your browser for the word "parallax" and see how many times it's mentioned. It's also interesting to see how many times it's mentioned in conjunction with Radio Shack.

-Phil

Paul Bouchard (Parallax)

Thanks Phil, I'll check it out.

Oldbitcollector (Jeff)

I'm pleased to see this as well... except this mention..

But a much, much better option is to buy this starter kit [noparse][[/noparse]adafruit.com] and learn the hot new Arduino [noparse][[/noparse]ladyada.net] instead of the aging Basic Stamp.

I can't believe a Basic Stamp fan would jump to Ardunio instead of Propeller... <shakes head>
I've been following the Ardunio stuff and can't say I'm impressed with what it can do compared to the Prop.

Time to drag the Basic Stamp guys over kicking and screaming. <SMIRK>

OBC

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Cenlasoft

Hello,
I am a diehard parallax fan, but I would like to see software for OS x for the propeller. Don't worry I'll switch to another brand
Curtis

Cenlasoft

correction, I'll never switch

Mike Green

You can run the Propeller Tool under CodeWeavers' CrossOver Mac. There are some errors that occur when opening folders that can be ignored, the downloading process doesn't work so you have to use the Python downloader, and the hex display of the compiled program has some font problems, but it compiles programs. I normally use VMWare's virtual PC and Windows XP Home to run the Propeller Tool and it works fine. I have other Windows-only programs that I have to have available, so I can't use just CrossOver Mac.

Cenlasoft

Thanks,
Curtis

LoopyByteloose

Well, it seems obvious that Arduino is just trying to exploit the Parallax name via an info-mercial approach.

The reason for Parallax's success in the educational market is a lot of hard work and on-going support by the Parallax team. I don't think Arduino offers the amount of free texts and download-able material the Parallax does.

Of course, if you are on top, others always want to copy your success and possibly abscond with your ideas. That is the nature of a competitive market place. The leader is never secure and always being challenged.

Arduino is certainly interesting, but I must say that the Propeller is MOST interesting. Maybe if they write a few tens of thousand paages of text and give it away, then the comparison would be closer.

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PLEASE CONSIDER the following:

Do you want a quickly operational black box solution or the knowledge included therein?······

···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Post Edited (Kramer) : 7/2/2008 10:09:47 AM GMT

Leon

The Arduino is popular because it is an open-source hardware/software project:

http://www.arduino.cc/

When I visited the Royal College of Art a few months ago, all the design students with projects involving MCUs were using the Arduino.

Leon

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Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle

Post Edited (Leon) : 6/22/2008 3:31:28 PM GMT

Dave Paton

I'll toss my $0.02 in as a long time embedded engineer. I have, and use, all kinds of processors, IDEs, and programmers, both at work and at home. I love the Stamps, and the SX, and the Atmels and the Pics, each for specific purposes and reasons. For fun at home though, I use an Arduino based system. It's small, fast, integrated, and most importantly, cross platform. I can hack on something on my lunch hour at work on a Win2K PC, and keep it on a thumbdrive, take it home, hack on it some more on oen of my Macs or my Linux box, and pack the whole thing up when I go on business, and hack some more in my hotel room on a Mac or a PC laptop. The cross platform simplicity is what really sells it for me. I've used Crossover and Parallels, and honestly, they don't work for me. I want something simple, reliable and elegant when I'm hacking. I don't want to think about the tool setup, I want to think about the code and the algorithms I'm putting into the chip. Worrying about how they get there interrupts the process, something I don't like at all.

Yes, I waxed philosophical there at the end, but that's why my $0.02 are free

-dave

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This is not a sig. This is a duck. Quack.

pwillard

You have definitely touched on why the Arduino isn't ignored and I agree with your points. (For the record, I really like the Arduino)

On the other side of the coin, I feel that the Arduino has a much higher geek quotient than your average Basic Stamp user wants to deal with. Learning to program in C versus Basic is a big step for some and one that many current Stamp or potential Stamp users just won't take. The longevity of the Parallax Basic Stamp series does not deserve the tag "AGING" either, especially when that longevity also provides a wealth of knowlegde, resources and ready made lessons and sample code with projects *still* being done by hobbyists on a daily basis.

Of course, if you already know "C", well, then clearly you have a leg up and the Arduino is just another choice among many. Eventually, it's like asking which Lego piece to use. If in the end the desired result is achieved, it doesn't matter what was used. Of course, there may be people wanting to know why you used "white" Lego blocks instead of "blue", but that's always going to happen. C'est la vie.

What makes Arduino popular is also what makes it somewhat less successful. Meaning, it's open source, free and knowledge of it is spread by word of mouth and methods like wiki's, blogs and google searches more than anything else. Arduino *might* be in four or five magazine articles a year, at best. Now, compare that to a Stamp.

I am also waxing philosphical here and I am only expressing my personal opinions, which may not even be worth $0.02 either.

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There's nothing like a new idea and a warm soldering iron.

LoopyByteloose

Well, open source certainly is a key issue. At some point it is a useful aspect of learning in depth computing. I've recently gotten my first real Linux computer and the open source approach really opens doors as one move more into becoming a true computer geek. Costs are low and answers are everywhere to be found.

All of Parallax's software can work with Crosstalk on Apples and Linux machines to write, read, and edit programs; but you need a Windows platform to do the actual programing. There is a fundamental difference is how Apple and Linux [noparse][[/noparse]which are Unix based] manage the serial I/O. I use Wine on my Linux machine.

Nonetheless, in any educational marketplace, the reality is that you always have many more begineers than people that achieve any degree of expertise. And we still live in a world that is 90% Windows, 9% Apple, 1% Linux desktops.

While I can easily understand that Parallax would like to protect the BasicStamp concept by withholding it from being open source. It sure would be nice if the Propeller could one day be used on any platform. Unlike the BasicStamp, there really isn't much hidden therein.

The features of the SPIN IDE that are proprietary could easily be trademarked and copyrighted. I just suspect that Parallax would rather not bother with making some lawyer's rich in the pursuit of enforcing rather uninforcible ownership rights from clever thieves with their own nasty lawyers. Often only the lawyers are making money in such situations and sometimes the owner is wasting his hard earned cash.

So they revert to a 'trade secret' approach with the IDE.

It is easier to live and let Arduino live. It really takes more than one company to make a growing industry. Some people likely buy Arduino, find it too advanced, and turn to Parallax. Some go the other way.

Things would get much more interesting if Parallax ever decided to switch to one of the more formidable microprocessors as a next generation Basic Stamp. Anything is possible.

I do find it quite interesting that Arduino is preferred among ART students.· It is quite an unusual niche market for microprocessors.

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PLEASE CONSIDER the following:

Do you want a quickly operational black box solution or the knowledge included therein?······

···················· Tropically,····· G. Herzog [noparse][[/noparse]·黃鶴 ]·in Taiwan

Post Edited (Kramer) : 7/2/2008 10:11:52 AM GMT

Leon

Those students I mentioned had an engineering background, and had used the Arduino on their first degree courses. They were actually studying design rather art.

Leon

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Amateur radio callsign: G1HSM
Suzuki SV1000S motorcycle