Lately technology has been headed in a lot of new directions. Last week I finally looked at the Raspberry Pi, and it seems really exciting and cool. I also plan on getting myself an Arduino for christmas and playing around with that. I thought it would be great if there was a thread where people could come read about/post about exciting new platforms they've thought about jumping on, and maybe explain a little bit about why. It doesn't have to just be hardware like Raspberry Pi or Arduino or Ouya. It could be some weird new OS, or some language, or any sort of community one could jump into.
It'd be most exciting for people to post about something completely out of nowhere, but I'd also like to hear from those already planning an Ouya project, or working on Windows 8 specific apps.
Anyway, hope this turns into a lively thread.
A List of Exciting New Platforms to Code for
Having got a Nokia Lumia 920 over the weekend I'm hoping to find some time to do some WP8 app dev 'at some point' - although when this mythical point in time happens remains to be seen..
(It also relies upon me not sitting about stroking the phone all the time too.... so smooth... so smooth.....)
(It also relies upon me not sitting about stroking the phone all the time too.... so smooth... so smooth.....)
I actually bought *two* RPis. Haven't programmed anything on it yet, though, been too busy at work.
I've done a number of things with Arduinos already, including this completely audio-based computer game: http://blog.makezine...dio-video-game/ (hmm, I need to do a new video, because the current version of the game runs a little differently).
But I'm really excited about this http://www.ti.com/ww...is-launchpad-b. Got two of them in the mail a few days ago (I buy two of everything because I'm building an MCU library at Hive76). Not as many IO pins as the Arduino Mega, but much faster and much cheaper.
Really, these things are super simple to use. Wiring up buttons is really easy, LEDs are a little harder but once you know what you're doing it's a piece of cake. Motors are a little more difficult, but again, there is a pretty straightforward solution that is easy to do once you know it. If you've been learning game programming in C, then you will know everything you need about programming one of these things. I'm constantly laughing at me EE friends who think they've written some amazing piece of code or complaining about a "large" project at 3000 LOC.
I've done a number of things with Arduinos already, including this completely audio-based computer game: http://blog.makezine...dio-video-game/ (hmm, I need to do a new video, because the current version of the game runs a little differently).
But I'm really excited about this http://www.ti.com/ww...is-launchpad-b. Got two of them in the mail a few days ago (I buy two of everything because I'm building an MCU library at Hive76). Not as many IO pins as the Arduino Mega, but much faster and much cheaper.
Really, these things are super simple to use. Wiring up buttons is really easy, LEDs are a little harder but once you know what you're doing it's a piece of cake. Motors are a little more difficult, but again, there is a pretty straightforward solution that is easy to do once you know it. If you've been learning game programming in C, then you will know everything you need about programming one of these things. I'm constantly laughing at me EE friends who think they've written some amazing piece of code or complaining about a "large" project at 3000 LOC.
Aye, when I've got more free time I'm going to do some stuff with the Raspberry PI. It sings to me in the same way as the old home computers of the 80s such as the ZX Spectrum, C64 and Amiga. Just for a laugh, I want to make my own casing for it which includes a CD-Rom drive and over-the-top LED lighting. LOL, my own personalised games machine! 
But seriously, it seems a good machine for both assembly and C programming. I'm definitely there!
But seriously, it seems a good machine for both assembly and C programming. I'm definitely there!
<shameless_self_promotion>
I've been hacking around on the Epoch language a lot lately. It's got a ways to go before I'd consider it a development platform in its own right (no standard library, VM is still pretty slow, etc.) but the real fun is in JIT native code generation via LLVM. If you're into messing around with assembly or low-level coding at all, you should really check out LLVM and play with it some. It's a beautiful system and mature enough to do serious work against. Plus it targets all kinds of hardware so there's interesting potential for cross-compiling code onto various "hacker kit" type hardware.
</shameless_self_promotIon>
I've been hacking around on the Epoch language a lot lately. It's got a ways to go before I'd consider it a development platform in its own right (no standard library, VM is still pretty slow, etc.) but the real fun is in JIT native code generation via LLVM. If you're into messing around with assembly or low-level coding at all, you should really check out LLVM and play with it some. It's a beautiful system and mature enough to do serious work against. Plus it targets all kinds of hardware so there's interesting potential for cross-compiling code onto various "hacker kit" type hardware.
</shameless_self_promotIon>
I bought an Ouya, so I might port my game/engine to Android in the near future, maybe.
The Oculus Rift isn't a platform to program for as much as a peripheral, but I'll be adding support for it's head-tracking (and probably FreeTrack, and the TrackIR if they'll give me their SDK) and super-wide FOV stereo rendering for it's VR display.
The Oculus Rift isn't a platform to program for as much as a peripheral, but I'll be adding support for it's head-tracking (and probably FreeTrack, and the TrackIR if they'll give me their SDK) and super-wide FOV stereo rendering for it's VR display.
These days I'm releasing cross-platform stuff for Windows, Linux, Symbian and Android, and other people have ported them to OS X, Maemo, Meego and Blackberry Playbook.
The Ouya looks interesting (does it have a microSD or other storage options? The internal 8GB seems to be the weak point in those specs).
The Ouya looks interesting (does it have a microSD or other storage options? The internal 8GB seems to be the weak point in those specs).
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