What's next?

[BrianGenisio]

I love what you've done so far! I am VERY interested in what your plans are for this. I am really excited about the idea of creating a robotics IDE for kids, so this is a great start.

My vision for an IDE would be something that has configurable components and exposes more of the Johnny-Five APIs for different objects. I'd like to let the user create pre-fabbed configurations for different bots based on things like servos, and reflectance arrays, and then let loose with a Blockly interface.

I went down the path of creating a Scratch to J5 Binding but it is really limited in what can be done. I had some ideas, but really, a Blockly interface is much more versatile.

Anyways, I'd be happy to contribute, or if you'd rather I just fork and run with it on my own (I don't see a license?), I'm happy to do that as well.

Thoughts?

[Resseguie]

Count me in too! @makenai and I started this conversation some time ago, but haven't acted on it yet. This is definitely a tool I'd use for #STEM work if it were more generic.

[makenai]

Hi! I haven't really touched this since Makerland, but I'd love work on it more with you two - especially with nodebots day coming up again soon. :)

I'm going to start filing some issues for basic things I know need to be fixed and cleaned up and get started with some long standing issues. Brian, would you like to sketch up an example of what you're thinking and we can discuss the best way to go about it?

Maybe the three of us could do a call or a slack or gitter chat and strategize a little?

[makenai]

OK, added a bunch of issues from my old notes and frazzled memories. I might start tackling one or two tomorrow night. I'm excited - thanks for your interest. 😸

[BrianGenisio]

Awesome. I'm excited :)

[BrianGenisio]

Cool, so I just threw down a bunch of my thoughts on this stuff in the issues you created. I'm really just brainstorming.

Also, what do you think about bringing in some workflow tooling (Bower, Grunt, Gulp, Yeoman, Ember-Cli, etc)?

And what do you think about UI frameworks? I have a ton of experience with Angular (though I am a bit disillusioned by it lately). I'm getting into Ember quite a bit lately... React looks awesome. Thoughts on that? What about supporting ES6?

(Again, just brainstorming... I don't mean to come in to your project and just vomit all over it! I'm just really excited about it :) )

[Resseguie]

I'm an Angular guy, too so I'm comfortable going that route. But open to other opinions.

[makenai]

I'm willing to look try Angular if you two think it's a good fit. I've never used it, but I've just been looking for an excuse.

I'm not sure about what ES6 support would entail - I'll comment more on that on #2.

Perhaps writing out and agreeing on some of the main project goals would be helpful in guiding the future direction.