Most wanted functions ?

[mc007ibi]

Hi,
I am trying to compile a list of the most wanted functions on the Raspberry-PI. Unrelated but why? I am trying to finish a general purpose authoring software but a bit more adjusted to the daily needs of a Raspberry-PI user. The software is similar to Scratch, just that it looks and works different; and well, it outputs web-apps. Here an example: (and here even more)
.

Similar as in Node-Red or Scratch, you can do most with a visual blocks language. Those take Javascript expressions and also has a variable system. The purpose of this post is to take your feedback into account and provide you the "most wanted" functions as easy to handle "blocks".

Currently I've done or started:

- basics : if-else-else-if, switch , variable related blocks, loop blocks like for and while, etc...

- gpio access
- file operation blocks
- a shell block (lets you do all what it doesnt do by-self)
- timers, cron (uses shell commands)
- play/record audio (uses VLC library)
- play/record video (uses VLC library)
- text to speech (Node.JS based)

I am trying to get these as next too:

- Python function caller block (takes as argument a file, a method and arguments). works with asynchronous scripts.
- System status and controls (disc space, cpu consumption, shutdown,...)
- OpenCV: I really would like to have this as modular blocks but it turns out its better to run this over a "shell" block which calls then just some Python.


The software already supports: serial, http, tcp, udp, mqtt, ssh and built-in support for the Johnny-Five (robotics) library and you can create for each protocol a client or server. As basic element there is the "Command", a block which takes a string (or expression). The software will send this string then over the chosen protocol. A command has also "outlets" for paused, progress, error, stopped, finished. You can add more blocks for each such "signal".


Anyhow, if there is anything I missed, please let me know here.

ps: the software already works well for us and can be found here but I'd prefer to make that 'special' RPI version of it and make sure you don't encounter any trouble (currently the ARM-v7 support is a little unstable and incomplete). Its a truly free and open source, with no strings attached. Its licensed under the BSD-3 license, so you can use it in your commercial productions without any hassle or sort of dictatorship.

Thanks for reading and your help!

[broe23]

If you are writing your own software that you want others to use, I would suggest getting your own Github and allow people to download the software and give you feedback on how it works. Everyone is different and since it is you that who will be marketing this out to a particular group who may want it, you need to just go with your gut feeling. Just remember that the more difficult you make it by adding too many features or too many layers to get through in Settings, Preferences or when a person clicks on a pull down list, you will quickly lose your user base.

[mc007ibi]

@broe23. Ok, thanks! I have hundreds of github repos, all being a little harder to navigate compared with a designated home page, but here you go. About too much functionality, I agree; but its pretty naked actually and works the old-school way (ie: different ways to solve the same problem with always the same tools) and new functionality is added as "blocks". I am mainly interested what blocks to add for PI users....

[hcv90676]

OpenCV support can be interesting. Could you clarify following part?

OpenCV: I really would like to have this as modular blocks but it turns out its better to run this over a "shell" block which calls then just some Python.

infix to postfix java

[mc007ibi]

@hcv90676 OpenCV: At the moment I can't really wrap my head around the idea of having the full OpenCV API as blocks (shown in the picture above) except for building filter pipes with such block language. Most tasks in OpenCV are better done with a real script language. The other bigger trouble is that the installation of OpenCV on a PI turns out little difficult, at least for OpenCV - 2.4. Anyhow, I am still undecided. For now I've found a pretty good working Node.JS wrapper: https://www.npmjs.com/package/opencv. I guess I will get away by wrapping this library properly just and make sure users don't need to worry too much about the details, and so having more time for focusing on their actual project . Possibly I should also make some more research on what PI users are actually doing with OpenCV.

And sorry for getting off topic by polluting the subject with sort of self-adverts. I should have taken a better post title just.

[mc007ibi]

regarding OpenCV again, seems most wanted is a block which can do all sorts of tracking. that gives you some basic motion, face and object detectors and trackers. i checked this with VR & AV authoring software and that are the very basic blocks after all. ok! going for that, really nice to have!

[mc007ibi]

opencv,something you can use here as input trigger:
a pic from 2009