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Amazing developments in programming MCU's from the browser! — Parallax Forums

Amazing developments in programming MCU's from the browser!

Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
edited 2014-01-17 22:47 in Propeller 1
For all those interested in programming / controlling MCU based devices from a browser interface and especially in an educational context I urge you to watch this video:

http://2013.jsconf.eu/speakers/jason-frame-acceptable-in-the-80s-revisiting-microworlds.html


You might wonder what the idea here is as you start to watch. This guy starts out by talking about modern day windowing interfaces and how limiting they are. He then moves on to describing how he would like his desktop to work complete with a demonstration. He has some radical ideas there. This is already amazing enough given that his demo runs entirely in a browser window.

But the finale is a demo of controlling an MCU from the browser with in browser editing, graphical feed back, and video overlay of the real system working.

I'm sure there are some ideas in there that could be made use of.

The whole thing is damn cool even if not.

Comments

  • TonyDTonyD Posts: 210
    edited 2014-01-17 05:22
    cool :-)
    I
    The spec for HTML5 "had" the option to use a computers USB and serial interfaces but as far I know no browsers have implemented yet. Now that would be cool (and possibly a little dangereous), on-line code development talking to your dev board :-).
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-17 05:46
    I think I read somewhere that it is possible to access seria/USB from HTML5 on the Chrome OS. So these things might be coming to other browsers.
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-01-17 06:02
    What would be an example of the most bare bones test for a browser > USB? I would assume that the webpage would need to include support for selecting the correct USB2SER port.

    What would be a goal of the browser in relation to the USB port?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-17 06:28
    I have no idea what the API for USB access from a browser might look like. I'm sure you can find it in some proposed HTML5 standard on the net somewhere.

    As for the goal. Well just imagine an application running in your browser is just like any other desktop application. Surely you use USB from those sometimes?

    What we are interested in here is a development environment for the Propeller that runs in a browser.

    It has already been shown how to edit Spin programs in a browser complete with syntax highlighting.
    We can compile Spin in the browser using openspin that has been "transpiled" into JavaScript.

    The missing link is actually loading binaries into Propellers from the browser IDE.
    An HTML 5 USB API would make that possible.
  • T ChapT Chap Posts: 4,223
    edited 2014-01-17 06:36
    So the binary load would require the same timing intricacies on the reset pin.
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-17 06:57
    Yes, the binary load would have to satisfy timing requirements of the Propeller. That may or may not be tricky.
    Propeller loading can be done in Python so I estimate it should be easy to do in JavaScript in the browser which is generally faster.

    If I recall the plan correctly the P2 will be easier to deal with.
  • jrjr.jrjr. Posts: 45
    edited 2014-01-17 07:47
    All,

    Does anyone recognize what GUI he was using on the demo ?

    It's obviously on an Apple, and tagged as "curiosity" but I did not recognize it.

    It looked very useful to build with.

    jr
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-17 07:54
    jrjr,

    Does anyone recognize what GUI he was using on the demo ?
    I'm not sure what you are asking. That whole GUI is something he had made for the presentation. Probably based on a project elsewhere that I have not managed to find out about yet.

    As far as I can tell, and given that was a presentation at jsconf the whole thing runs in the web browser. Apart from perhaps some server components that were no doubt made in node.js.

    The fact that he used an Apple computer is irrelevant.

    Sadly I can't find any links to that demo code if indeed there are any anywhere.

    I think "curiosity" was just the name of that demo software he had made.
  • jrjr.jrjr. Posts: 45
    edited 2014-01-17 19:05
    Heater,

    I did shoot him an inquiry, I'll post any relevant response.

    I'm not very apple-centric so it might have been some package
    that apple dev's knew, so I asked.

    I'll bet you're right on it being his alone at this point, he sure was sailing through it.

    His concepts go back pretty far as I see it, I've been using
    the 'server' side to pull a lot of weight for uP's for a long time.

    ...just not in HTML(5).

    Using lower level uP's data, triggering 'pretty' across the interface on the display element.

    It keeps the uP code base really small, but it means a ton of extra code on the 'server (display)' side.

    Thanks for the response,

    jr
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2014-01-17 21:49
    No, he wrote it as a proof of concept to illustrate his ideas about where desktop metaphor computing could go and how it lacks compared to the command line.
  • msrobotsmsrobots Posts: 3,709
    edited 2014-01-17 22:01
    @potatohead - exactly!

    or -well wasn't that OS-9 ?

    Enjoy!

    Mike
  • Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) Posts: 23,514
    edited 2014-01-17 22:23
    heater wrote:
    I think I read somewhere that it is possible to access seria/USB from HTML5 on the Chrome OS.

    You're thinking of Chrome Apps.

    -Phil
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-01-17 22:47
    Yes I am Phil.

    But what about HP's (now defunct) Web OS and now Mozilla's FireFox OS ?

    Looks like everybody wants to make this happen. Where is it all leading?
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