Thoughts on programming Arduino/Raspberry Pi?

[Kevin Albers]

Hi everyone, I am part of a research group at UC Berkeley working on a product involving the Arduino/Raspberry Pi.
We are conducting market tests, and would really appreciate your help answering these questions.
Thank you for your time!

If you use Arduino/Raspberry Pi, how often do you use it? How do you use it?
Would you consider it mostly a hobby or do you use it for school/industry as well?
How were you first introduced to it?

What are your general thoughts on the Arduino/Raspberry Pi?
Did you learn to program by using the Arduino/Raspberry Pi or did you have some prior experience?
If you had prior experience, how much?
What languages are you well-versed in?

Would you be interested in a model-based approach to programming Arduino/Raspberry Pi functions?
This would be something akin to Matlab’s Simulink or Labview’s visual programming (flowcharts).
The basic idea would be to remove the need to code in C.
If you are not interested, why not?
If you are interested, what specific features would you enjoy?
Do you believe such a tool would be an efficient way to teach/introduce students to programming?

In addition, here is a 1-minute survey (on a similar subject) if you are interested:
Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dkwyhC59I7h8IOuNFyL_tbjo7AFucTP0KQS0mYH1qy4/viewform

[Jan Cumps]

Hi Kevin, welcome to our forum.


> If you use Arduino/Raspberry Pi, how often do you use it?
Few times per month
> How do you use it?
As a prototyping tool
> Would you consider it mostly a hobby or do you use it for school/industry as well?
industry as prototyping tool
> How were you first introduced to it?
eevblog.com

What are your general thoughts on the Arduino/Raspberry Pi?
Arduino: great for microcontroller trials, excellent community
R-Pi: no experience yet

> Did you learn to program by using the Arduino/Raspberry Pi or did you have some prior experience?
Prior experience
> If you had prior experience, how much?
30
> What languages are you well-versed in?
C, C++, Java, Pascal, all Basic variants, some cobol, assembler for 68XX an 8086, SQL, shell scripting for MS and UNIX/LINUX, and then some...

> Would you be interested in a model-based approach to programming Arduino/Raspberry Pi functions?
> This would be something akin to Matlab’s Simulink or Labview’s visual programming (flowcharts).
> The basic idea would be to remove the need to code in C.
Not sure. I've worked with text programming and mod-based. They both have their place. As the things stand now, I haven't seen one replace the other.
My roots are in programming language, but I've worked with model-based enough to see that it can work quite well in certain situations.

> If you are not interested, why not?
Because after prototyping I want to use the results a s a head start for the real thing

> If you are interested, what specific features would you enjoy?
Letting the controller talk to peripherals (sensors, displays, communication with computers and other IC)

> Do you believe such a tool would be an efficient way to teach/introduce students to programming?
No. I think there's a difference between programming and orchestration. So I don't think at this moment in time that it can replace learning a programming language. I can be proven wrong

[Kevin Albers]

Thank you for the response!

We have been thinking that the Hobby market might be the place to go. It doesn't seem like a good tool to teach programming, though it might be interesting to see if they can work well along side one another. It also seems to silly to use it as a prototyping tool, since arduino is so easy to begin with.

eevblog is a great source, I have been subscribed to his youtube channel for a while now.

[Richard Tookey]

Kevin Albers wrote:Hi everyone, I am part of a research group at UC Berkeley working on a product involving the Arduino/Raspberry Pi.
We are conducting market tests, and would really appreciate your help answering these questions.
Thank you for your time!

If you use Arduino/Raspberry Pi, how often do you use it? How do you use it?

I use the Arduino most days and these days the Raspberry PI infrequently. My main use of the Arduino is for prototyping before creating bespoke hardware based on one of the ATMEL processors mounted on boards I have built myself. The PI is a nice little computer but the projects I am working on require more direct access to and control of the IO and timer-counters than the PI allows (Linux just gets in the way). Also, the PI is an expensive solution in both monetary cost and footprint for the hardware I am building. I will probably be relegating the PI to use as a server for MySQL, Apache, Tomcat and SVN.

Would you consider it mostly a hobby or do you use it for school/industry as well?

Since I have retired these days I only use the Arduino and PI for a hobby. I have great reservations about using the PI in schools.

How were you first introduced to it?

What are your general thoughts on the Arduino/Raspberry Pi?

I'm not convinced that either the Arduino or PI help with learning the basics of either electronics or programming. Many (most?) project I see are really only jigsaw puzzles build from standard 'shields' (I do so hate that word even though it is applicable since they shield the user from the real world) . Maybe I'm being too negative but ...

Did you learn to program by using the Arduino/Raspberry Pi or did you have some prior experience?
If you had prior experience, how much?
What languages are you well-versed in?

I was introduced to programming as an undergraduate in 1964 but only really got heavily involved in 1967. I have programmed in many many languages and have taught several.

I find it interesting that you are concentrating on the software aspects. To me the whole point of the PI and the Arduino is that they can interact with hardware and the programming side is only half the story. To my mind understanding how to interface them with the hardware is just as important as the programming.

Would you be interested in a model-based approach to programming Arduino/Raspberry Pi functions?
This would be something akin to Matlab’s Simulink or Labview’s visual programming (flowcharts).

Definitely not. When I used Ti's HalCoGen I found one lost the feel.

The basic idea would be to remove the need to code in C.

Why? What do you perceive the advantages to be because as a hardware and software developer I can't see any advantages. Also, since it is OO based I use C++ rather than C.

If you are not interested, why not?
If you are interested, what specific features would you enjoy?
Do you believe such a tool would be an efficient way to teach/introduce students to programming?

Definitely not! To me it is like trying to sew wearing boxing gloves.

In addition, here is a 1-minute survey (on a similar subject) if you are interested:
Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1dkwyhC59I7h8IOuNFyL_tbjo7AFucTP0KQS0mYH1qy4/viewform