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Author Topic: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal  (Read 27615 times)

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #15 on: August 28, 2014, 11:31:37 pm »
I've added a new Linux section at the bottom of the picoscope web page noted previously.

There is a link on that page to an interesting project (UX) that might make educational linux stuff simple and fun to start!  UX is a 18 MB (QEMU) download that works on 3 operating systems (Win, OS X, Linux).  I'd like to make something similar but larger (with Debian rather than Tiny Core Linux) with the simple tools and code on the picoscope web page.

If anyone wants to help promote Free Pascal in this way please contact me!   :)
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #16 on: January 03, 2015, 06:13:10 am »
Inexpensive tablets (mini PCs) with desktop Windows 8.1 might be better than Android since the development tools are much easier?  Feedback is appreciated!

On 23 Dec. 2014 I received an email about the TW700 which is a 7" tablet with Windows 8.1 for only $60 (US) but you have to go into the store to pick it up (other similar devices are available from other manufacturers).
http://www.microcenter.com/product/439773/TW700_Tablet_-_Black


Control Terminal works with the touch screen without any changes.  This is easy and might help Wintel keep some of us in the fold!
http://ctrlterm.com/
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

x2nie

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #17 on: January 09, 2015, 08:45:00 am »
Yes, 60US$ Windows8 gadget (tablet) is worth enough for such DIY Embroidery machine project.
Plus, your Control Terminal seem works nicely like a charm with it.


Next question: what if the configuration changed?
Your config is Windows8 -->> directly talks to Microcontroller
what if: Windows8-->> bluetooth4/wifi sender -->> bluetooth/wifi receiver --> microcontroller?


It's would be great to see whats your opinion?







When you were logged in, you can see attachments.
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ahiggins

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #18 on: January 09, 2015, 12:44:26 pm »
bit off topic, but i really do wish the raspberry pi foundation would have done more free pascal, i have nothing against python, but from a personal point of view i think pascal is a wonderful language to teach/learn but the biggest thing for me is just how flexible it is. i've used it for basic hardware testing utils when i working in a workshop to client server database applications in my current role.
all across a multitude of devices/os' including ARM/Intel/PC/Tablet/RasPi/Windows/WinCE/GNU/Linux.
I just wish more people would give Pascal a go and not be put of by its age. the fact is, it's age is a massive plus point, very rear you come across a problem that has not been seen before and there are tons of examples out there. then we come to FPC/Lazarus, what a combo, simply amazing in my humble opinion and this forum is priceless.         

Windsurfer

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #19 on: January 09, 2015, 06:15:37 pm »
Sadly, we all tend to stay with what we know. Most of the 'youngsters' working on Raspberry Pi probably chose Python because it was easier than C.

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #20 on: May 29, 2015, 03:02:31 pm »
Thanks x2nie for mentioning Teensy (way back on 26 May 2014).  There has been a bit of progress on that front recently (May 2015) in this forum thread: http://forum.lazarus.freepascal.org/index.php/topic,28561.0.html
« Last Edit: May 29, 2015, 06:59:20 pm by Paul Breneman »
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Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #21 on: August 26, 2015, 02:56:17 pm »
I just added a new tutorial page in the wiki which I hope will help: http://wiki.freepascal.org/Control_Pascal_Tutorial

It is amazing how much stuff I've accumulated in the past eight years that provides an introduction to Free Pascal before getting into the complexities of IDEs and other stuff!

Thanks to all the Free Pascal developers for providing such fantastic tools!
« Last Edit: August 26, 2015, 03:11:41 pm by Paul Breneman »
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

Trenatos

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #22 on: August 26, 2015, 06:11:45 pm »
Advertise Lazarus.

Use Lazarus and stick a "Powered by Lazarus" graphic in the About section of your software.

Write articles and books.

Convince a school to teach Lazarus in their computer class.

Create a student-mentoring program, teaching kids about programming and mentoring not only about development but planning out a career as a coder (Using FPC/Lazarus as part of the skillset, of course)

Add cross platform compiling by default, so you can create Windows, Linux and Mac binaries with a single button.

Make Youtube teaching-videos.

Step 1 is getting in front of people, making sure people know Lazarus exists and what it can do.
Step 2 is convincing them that it's a great tool to use

FPC/Lazarus is great, just need more people to know that.

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #23 on: August 27, 2015, 04:14:24 am »
Thanks Trenatos for your comments, but introducting Lazarus (or simpler IDEs) is near the bottom (end) of the tutorial outline.  I updated the pages to show that I'm looking for something so simple that a ten year old child can get started in several hours (I've done that for fifteen years with other tools).  The Lazarus IDE is nice but it is too complicated for a complete beginner.
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

Trenatos

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #24 on: August 27, 2015, 04:29:16 am »
I disagree, kids are smart if given the chance.

The IDE may look overwhelming, but with a couple of simple tutorials with language simple enough for kids, it's really not that bad.

Show kids that they can make fun/cool stuff with FPC/Lazarus, then walk them through how make that cool thing themselves.

The thread is called "Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal", just throwing my ideas in there.

mse

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #25 on: August 27, 2015, 07:10:00 am »
I disagree, kids are smart if given the chance.
The IDE may look overwhelming, but with a couple of simple tutorials with language simple enough for kids, it's really not that bad.
Show kids that they can make fun/cool stuff with FPC/Lazarus, then walk them through how make that cool thing themselves.
The thread is called "Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal", just throwing my ideas in there.

I wrote such a beginner document for Free Pascal and MSEide+MSEgui (German):
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mseuniverse/files/book/programmierspass_0_1.zip/download

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #26 on: August 27, 2015, 03:14:25 pm »
Thanks mse!  Twenty-five years ago I did contract work in Germany several times and I knew a lot of German nouns (for traveling) but I never was able to learn much other German, so if you (or others) have an English translation (or can show me how to do that) I'd sure appreciate it!
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

mse

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #27 on: August 27, 2015, 05:06:25 pm »

Paul Breneman

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #28 on: December 24, 2015, 05:07:30 pm »
There are many new things (Teensy, a powerful IDE released today) mentioned here:
http://www.controlpascal.com/tutorial.htm
« Last Edit: December 24, 2015, 05:16:58 pm by Paul Breneman »
Regards,
Paul Breneman
www.ControlPascal.com

ykot

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Re: Ways to get people (future engineers) started with Free Pascal
« Reply #29 on: December 25, 2015, 02:20:42 am »
Thanks x2nie for mentioning Teensy: https://www.sparkfun.com/products/12646  I'd sure like to see that working in Free Pascal: http://wiki.freepascal.org/TARGET_Embedded

I'd also like to try using one of the pic32mx chips:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/TARGET_Embedded_Mipsel

Here is the top level wiki page for this stuff:
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Embedded
Actually, Teensy is already working with FreePascal and its hardware support has been recently added to Pascal eXtended Library by Michael Ring along with other similar chips; it also supports LPC11xx and STM32F4xx series chips as well for Embedded/ARM target. Support for AVR stuff has also been under work for some time.

To get more people involved in "Embedded" target, I was even giving away for free (including shipping) LPC1115 boards. Unfortunately, absolutely no one from these forums got interested in this stuff, I only got one request from a person in a different forum. It looks like there are only few people involved with electronics in addition to programming, who also happen to use Pascal as their programming language; although, as community, we have people who are very skilled and highly experienced, to me it looks there are very few of us into this stuff really. I also wouldn't be surprised if there are no young people trying "embedded" target in Pascal at all - I don't know anyone working in this area who is not 30+. We're getting old... :(

There are many new things (Teensy, a powerful IDE released today) mentioned here:
http://www.controlpascal.com/tutorial.htm

I don't know what's wrong with that "ControlPascal" web site, but I could never access it. It always times out in the browser. I could only see it when using proxy located in EU. I wonder if it is blocked, maybe for North/Central America? (I'm located in Mexico)

bit off topic, but i really do wish the raspberry pi foundation would have done more free pascal, i have nothing against python, but from a personal point of view i think pascal is a wonderful language to teach/learn but the biggest thing for me is just how flexible it is. i've used it for basic hardware testing utils when i working in a workshop to client server database applications in my current role.
[rant] I don't know all the details on why Python after getting sunk in niche market, suddenly got massive popularity boost, especially on platforms such as Raspberry PI - likely a big investment by interested parties along with state-of-the-art marketing; in my opinion, it's not right tool for the job. It's reality weirdness, not unlike widescreen vs 4:3 or glossy vs matte displays, where something good gets replaced by something cheaper but worse, and everyone adopts it. [/rant]
« Last Edit: December 25, 2015, 02:46:48 am by ykot »

 

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