Hey all,
I’ve not been much of a fan of Minibloq myself for several reasons. It’s great work, but it just hasn’t done what I’ve wanted, including the ability to teach high level programming, object orientation, easy function definition, etc. It does seem really good for creating some basic C code from blocks, which may be what a lot of people are looking for – it’s just not how I was looking to teach. So I started rethinking the problem a bit from the top down, using my past experience to try to come up with a solution that would make things (hopefully) a bit easier to work/teach and allow further expansion. I’ve just got to a point I think I can push out to others (you!).
[ul]
[li]I wanted something wireless, using the Bluetooth module, because I don’t like a lot of hands touching delicate robot pieces, breaking them. Also, recompilation and plugging in/out can take a lot of time. From there, I decided I wanted the code to run on a mobile device[/li]
[li]I wanted something that could teach high level language concepts and has real-world applicability. JavaScript is built into lots of devices and seemed optimal[/li]
[li]I wanted to maintain the ease (and lack of syntax programming issues) of the visual programming, but provide more capabilities that what is currently available on Minibloq.[/li][/ul]
Anyway, what I’ve come up with is something I’m calling JSparks. I’ve put up a landing page with some instructions on how to use it and the links you’d need at sparki.eskibars.com/ . If others like to use it, great – I hope it gets more usage than just myself! I’d love to hear additional feedback as well. There are likely some bugs and several features which I haven’t implemented yet, so please don’t hesitate to let me know!
- Shane