Forked from the article at:
https://forum.dexterindustries.com/t/documentation-for-update-gopigo3-sh-and-related-scripts/9472/6
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Me “doing Bloxter” isn’t entirely accurate. I use it, but it’s not the only took in the shed.
I like Bloxter. That is, I don’t think that doing block-based coding is beneath my dignity. (
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I am also interested in the educational aspects. In other words, being able to demonstrate to others that technology isn’t just “magic in a box”, but rather something THEY can do too. (And block-based coding is a nice, non-threatening way to do that.)
IMHO robotics is a good choice for programming education because the coding you do actually does something instead of just going “bloop-bleep-blip!” on a computer screen.
I don’t mess with ROS because (IMHO), there isn’t enough value add to me specifically - that is, I find the “native” environment sufficiently rich, interesting, and useful to me that I don’t really need ROS.
That isn’t to say that I’m not interested in ROS(x), it’s just that there is “a lot of meat still on the bones” of GoPiGo OS and it’s associated software to keep me busy.
I’m also, primarily, a hardware/embedded controller mavin. As in “replace these three resistors in the new Lithium battery packs so that the “state of charge” lights indicate accurately”, or “how to wire a pair of switches to make a bumper”, or “how to use a DIP switch to select among multiple operating systems at boot time (as if they were the only one installed)”, or “why doesn’t the Pi-4 reflash the GoPiGo firmware correctly?” (still under investigation), etc.
ROS is interesting, it’s just that there’s enough other stuff to do to keep me interested without fighting that particular dragon.
In a sense, I see myself in a support role. I do a lot of the background research, (with @cyclicalobsessive, of course!), that paves the way for the significant foreground research you all do.
What say ye?