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ESP8266 Basic Interpreter Lowers IoT Entry Bar For Amateur Programmers (esp8266basic.com)

Posted by timothy on from the go-cheap-and-go-home dept.

New submitter mmiscool writes: ESP8266 Basic is a project less than 6 moths old. It is open source and designed specifically for the internet of things. The ESP8266 microcontroller costs less than $3, and once the basic firmware is loaded to the device a user can connect to it using Wi-Fi and start programming right inside their web browser. No wires, no software or plugins to install. Just a simple text editor. There is now a community, primarily older folks who fell in love with Basic on the Commodore, who are using it for controlling a variety of projects. The code is amazingly simple and includes commands for interfacing with neo pixels, OLED displays, Temperature sensors, hobby servo motors and of course the blinky LED. It also provides commands for browser widgets that can be used to construct interfaces for the device like textboxes, buttons, sliders and dropdowns. The bottom line is that Basic is not dead, and has finally made its way into the internet of things. Make last year ran a three-part series on the chip (here's part one), but things have advanced quite a bit since then, when people were first noticing that the ESP8266 is more powerful than the tasks for which it was first marketed.

5 of 112 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Just what we need... by Aighearach · · Score: 3, Funny

    No, this is for those of us who were already brain-damaged by BASIC in the 1980s.

    This is just retro drugs, move along kids, nothing to see here. No, son, that's a... vase with a smaller vase on the side, don't look at that. No, don't look under there.

    I started with Apple Basic, not Commodore. But I had a Timex/Sinclair at home. 2K RAM!!!

  2. Not less by johnw · · Score: 5, Funny

    ESP8266 Basic is a project less than 6 moths old

    fewer than 6 moths.

    1. Re:Not less by swimboy · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't know what kind of moths you hang out with, but my moths are *huge* gossips. I'd hardly call them discreet.

      --
      Ask me how the Heisenberg Principle may or may not have saved my life.
  3. Ob by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    10 WRITELN "FROSTY PISS"
    20 GOTO 10
    30 REM the lameness filter really is a piece of shit

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Re:Older people who feel in love with basic on c64 by hughbar · · Score: 1, Funny

    Do not be ashamed! Spent a lot of time in the late 1970's/early '80s with a Teletype 33 copying out 'Hunt the Wumpus' into a Honeywell-Bull Level 64 mainframe.

    It made me the person I am today, living alone in a basement, no friends, paint-stripper breath, three days beard and a very annoying pedantic way of talking. What, exactly, is not to like? We need to form a club, except that I don't get out very much.

    --
    On y va, qui mal y pense!