Minibloq is a graphical programming environment for Arduino and other physical computing devices, such as DuinoBot or Maple. One of its main goals is to bring closer Arduino, Multiplo and other platforms to primary schools, kids and beginners.
For further information about the project, please visit our project page.
Minibloq's main features (once ready...please see below)
- Easy: Just a few clicks and the first program is running.
- Fast: I'ts a compiled app (made with gcc). For this reason, Minibloq is suitable for low-end computers and netbooks. It even runs on the OLPC XO and the Intel Classmate netbooks!
- Free and with sources!: Once we reached the goal, the program will be available for free, in its full version. No fees for advanced features or the like. In addition, the full source code will be made public.
- Ready for the transition to text-based programming: Minibloq shows the generated code in a syntax colored window. This may be very useful for users and students who want to start fast with graphical programming, and then go to to the next step.
- Advanced interface: Zoom, Copy, Cut and Paste, Undo/Redo, and keyboard navigation are just some of the features that Minibloq's interface has. And there is more…
- Modular: The user can easily create his own new blocks.
- All-in-one, ready-to-use solution:The package includes everything to start working. Just download, unzip and start working.
- Portable: It does not require installation (except for the drivers required for the specific boards, like Arduino). It can run from a flash drive too. In addition, it runs completely off-line, all in your own computer. More: You can have parallel copies of Minibloq, even with different settings running in the same computer.
- Easy integration with new hardware: Adding support for new platforms and boards (they are called targets in Minibloq) is very straightforward. This might not be a beginner's feature, but it can be learned without much effort. Even different compilers and languages can be added.
- Internationalization: The first release will be available in English and Spanish, but anyone can contribute with new translations, since this only implies editing a text file.
Work in progress (this is why we need your help)
- Te most important still-unfinished feature: The configurable back-end (with XML). This will enable other users and developers to add a lot of new boards to the supported hardware (and even other programming languages, like Lua, Java, Python, etc.).
- GUI features (the cut, copy & paste stuff, just to mention some...).
- More blocks!
- More targets (supported boards).
- Internationalization.
- Complete keyboard navigation and edition.
- An embedded terminal.
- Public documentation (this is a lot of work, not always taken into account). This will include screencast tutorials and as many examples as we can create. If we can, we will add a contextual help subsystem too.
- More testing.
- Surprise features...
Here are some of the things on which we want to work for the v1.0 Alpha release:
See it in action
Minibloq was featured on these sites:
- Seeedstudio
- SparkFun
- Four Walled Cubicle (LUFA's home)
- Hack a Day
- technabob
- CrunchGear
- semageek.com (French)
- monogocoro.jp (Japanese)
- BricoGeek (Spanish)
- geek.com.br (Portuguese)
Thanks!
Questions about this project? Check out the FAQ
Support
Funding period
- (35 days)