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Linux client for BlocklyProp — Parallax Forums

Linux client for BlocklyProp

Hello,

I purchased an ActivityBot for my son. We assembled and wired it, and I am able to use SimpleIDE to build, load and run the "hello world" example. So far so good. The next thing I am trying to do is use BlocklyProp, at least until my son is old enough to understand the intricacies of the C language (at the very least he should know how to programme a Duff's device...). Alas, no Windows or Mac computers in our house.
A Google search pointed me to a Python-based client here:
https://github.com/parallaxinc/BlocklyPropClient

A few questions:
1. Is this an officially-supported client? Doesn't seem to be.
2. Is the project still active?
3. I got the client to work with the server hosted on blocklyprop.creatingfuture.eu (needed a couple of tweaks), which is not the one that the official site points to. That one does not work with the client at all.

Before I continue my debugging efforts or, worse, write my own client, is there a better way to get BlocklyProp on Linux?

Thanks,
--Elad

Comments

  • Good News Elad, the BlocklyProp project is very much alive. The Linux client does not appear on the BlocklyProp web site but the client does work. We use it internally for our development and test systems.

    You will want to use the code from the Demo branch of the BlockyPropClient repository you note in your post. The instructions for running or building the client are on the README.md page in the repo. Click on the Connect button to start the client.

    Point your web browser to http://demo.blockly.parallax.com (Test site) or to http://blockly.parallax.com (Beta site). Create an account; log in and build a project. On the project page, you should see a message in the upper-right that indicates that the BlocklyProp Client is connected. Select the correct serial or USB port and the click on the Run drop down. Select Load RAM to place your project code onto your device.


  • In addition, you may want to use the demo/test site http://demo.blockly.parallax.com for building projects. Currently, the demo site has a new category for "Robot" in the block menu, with blocks specifically for the ActivityBot. Those are being tested now, and are not in the production site yet. Please feel free to let us know if you find any difficulties with them.
  • Switching to the demo branch did the trick, thanks!
    One minor glitch I encountered is that when running directly from source, the loader's path is set as "/propeller-tools/linux/propeller-load", which I had to change to "./propeller-tools/linux/propeller-load". However, building the distributable version, this change ended up with the loader trying to use "../propeller-tools/linux/propeller-load" and had to be reverted.
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