Embedded Scripting (eLua, Espruino, Micro Python) – 27/03/2014


The Open Source Specialist Group  (OSSG) and Open Source Hardware User Group (OSHUG) are hosting a joint meeting dedicated to embedded scripting languages.

The even will take place at the BCS Central London Offices, First Floor, The Davidson Building, 5 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HA between 6:00pm and 8:30pm.

This event is free to attend for both BCS Members and non-members but booking is required.

This meeting will take a look at the use of scripting languages with deeply embedded computing platforms, which have much more constrained

Programming a microcontroller with Lua

eLua is a full version of the Lua programming language for microcontrollers, running on bare metal. Lua provides a modern high level dynamically typed language, with first class functions, coroutines and an API for interacting with C code, and yet which is very small and can run in a memory constrained environment. This talk will cover the Lua language, the microcontroller environment, and show it running on off the shelf ARM Cortex boards as well as the Mizar32, an open hardware design built especially for eLua.

Justin Cormack is a software developer based in London. He used to work in a startup that built LED displays and retains a fondness for hardware. He organizes the London Lua User Group, which hosts talks on the Lua programming language.

Bringing JavaScript to Microcontrollers

This talk will discuss the benefits and challenges of running a modern scripting language on microcontrollers with extremely limited resources. In particular we will take a look at the Espruino JavaScript interpreter and how it addresses these challenges and manages to run in less than 8kB of RAM.

Gordon Williams has developed software for companies such as Altera, Nokia, Microsoft and Lloyds Register, but has been working on the Espruino JavaScript interpreter for the last 18 months. In his free time he enjoys making things – from little gadgets to whole cars.

Micro Python — Python for microcontrollers

Microcontrollers have recently become powerful enough to host high-level scripting languages and run meaningful programs written in them. In this talk we will explore the software and hardware of the Micro Python project, an open source implementation of Python 3 which aims to be as compatible as possible with CPython, whilst still fitting within the RAM and ROM constraints of a microcontroller. Many tricks are employed to put as much as possible within ROM, and to use the least RAM and minimal heap allocations as is feasible. The project was successfully funded via a Kickstarter campaign at the end of 2013, and the hardware is currently being manufactured at Jaltek Systems UK.

Damien George is a theoretical physicist who likes to write compilers and build robots in his spare time.

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