[Embedlets-dev] Quiet time is over

[Ted K. <tk...@ya...>]

Things have been quiet in the Embedlets project for a number of months but this
is because a number of us have been working extremely hard during this time
turning some of the ideas that have been discussed on this list into code and
products.  

Bruce has gotten TStik out the door, Chris has been integrating a persistence
mechanism into the Embedlets code base, James has been having some great
discussions with MicroChip about uVM (along with moving Heaven and Earth to get
the uVM 1.0.7 release finished) and I have been working on the following:


1) More than half of the free online Embedded Java Beginner's course materials
have been completed and the complete course including a uVM track should be
done by sometime in December.  Here is a link to what is up right now:

http://tkosan.javadevices.org/ssu/classes/etec201/index.html

The site is branded as an 'Intro to OOP 1' course right now because I am beta
testing the materials in a University course that I am teaching but it will be
re-branded as soon as the beta test period is completed.



2) The Global Light Blinker project continues to move forward
(http://globallightblinker.jxta.org/), the first generation controller boxes
are currently being assembled, the second generation controller boxes are
scheduled to be powered by uVMs and the third generation controller boxes are
scheduled to be controlled by TStiks.



3) The uVM powered CNC plasma machine that I talked about this summer is coming
along slow but sure and I plan on using a TStik and the new uVM-452 devices for
it (http://tkosan.javadevices.org/misc/embeddedjava/plasma_frame.jpg).



4) And here is an announcement that I have been keeping quiet about until now. 
Since about mid summer I have been working very hard to bring a version of
BASIC to the world of Embedded Java (called JBasic) and as of now the
environment is mostly functional and is going through alpha testing (JavaCC and
JJTree rock!).

The goal of JBasic is to provide an easy way for beginners get up and running
on any Embedded Java device (like TINI, TSTIK, JStamp, JStik, etc. and
hopefully uVM) *without needing to use tools like TiniConverter, Charade,
JemBuilder or uvmp*.  

It is also designed to be a scripting language for Embedlets and it provides a
viable solution to the 'Embedlet configuration by non-Java programmers' goal
that I am still shooting for with the Graphical Wiring tool.  The nice thing
about JBasic is that it works now and will be ready to beta test sometime in
December.


Here is a screen shot of the JBasicBulder IDE:

http://tkosan.javadevices.org/misc/embeddedjava/JBasicBuilder.jpg


and here is JBasic's BNF specification (which uses Paul Cager's VB BNF spec as
a starting point):

http://tkosan.javadevices.org/misc/embeddedjava/jbasicbnf.html


JBasic was tested on a TStik last week and it ran well.  Testing on
JStamp/JStik should occur within a few weeks and as soon as I receive a 452
based uVM device I am going to try to shoe-horn the interpreter into one.




Anyway, Chris and I have been discussing the integration of the Embedlet
Configuration and Persistance mechanisms a bit off list and within a day or two
I will copy this information to the list so that everyone can participate in
the discussion.


It was a quiet summer but it looks like things are going to begin heating up
again very soon.

I predict that the Winter of 2003-2004 will finally see the arrival of the
Embedded Java inflection point that we have all been working so hard to
achieve.


Ted

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search
http://shopping.yahoo.com