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digitalmars.D - Arduino and D

reply "Ty Tower" <tytower hotmail.com.au> writes:
Has anybody tapped the massive Arduino programming explosion 
using D instead of C++ ?
I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
microprocessor popularity through the roof .
Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program the  
chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of including 
turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in the world  and 
much much more .

I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?
Oct 25 2014
next sibling parent reply "Israel" <tl12000 live.com> writes:
On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive Arduino programming explosion 
 using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of including 
 turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in the world  
 and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


Well it is ARM so it should be possible.
Oct 25 2014
next sibling parent "Mike" <none none.com> writes:
On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 22:55:12 UTC, Israel wrote:

 Well it is ARM so it should be possible.


There is a significant difference between ARM and ARM Thumb.

ARM (which shares the name of ARM Ltd.) is the architecture 
primarily used for devices like smartphones, credit card PCs 
(Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, etc...) and other portable 
consumer devices.

ARM Thumb, on the other hand, is the architecture used for 
microcontroller programming like the Arduino.

ARM is a 32-bit instructions set, and ARM Thumb is 16-bit or a 
mixture of 16-bit and 32-bit instructions.  I've only done ARM 
Thumb programming, so I can't elaborate on the differences well, 
but I also believe the two have a different exception model and 
many other differences.

I believe the mainline druntime has pretty good support for ARM, 
but nothing at all for ARM Thumb.  One could probably use D 
pretty well for the Raspberry Pi, but they're going to have to 
make their own druntime to program the Arduino.

Mike
Oct 25 2014
prev sibling next sibling parent reply Filipe =?UTF-8?B?TGHDrW5z?= <filipe.lains gmail.com> writes:
On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 22:55:12 UTC, Israel wrote:

 On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive Arduino programming explosion 
 using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of 
 including turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in 
 the world  and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


 Well it is ARM so it should be possible.


Actually, most arduinos use Atmel's chips so most of them are AVR.
Apparently, there was some work done to port GDC to AVR [1]. I 
don't really know the usability of this but I suspect it's not 
much.

If you want a board with similar size too small arduino like the 
pro/pro mini that has an ARM chip, you should have a look at 
Teensy[2]. Using D to program ARM chips shouldn't be that hard.

[1] https://github.com/D-Programming-microD/GDC/tree/microD-4.9
[2] https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/
May 15 2018
parent reply Russel Winder <russel winder.org.uk> writes:
On Tue, 2018-05-15 at 22:28 +0000, Filipe La=C3=ADns via Digitalmars-d wrot=
e:
[=E2=80=A6]

=20



 Actually, most arduinos use Atmel's chips so most of them are AVR.
 Apparently, there was some work done to port GDC to AVR [1]. I=20
 don't really know the usability of this but I suspect it's not=20
 much.


[1] Looks very old and unmaintained, i.e. 4 years since the last commit. Al=
so
D (gdc) is now a part of the GCC suite, which may explain [1] being retred.
GCC has AVR backends, thus gdc has an AVR backend. Also it has an ARM backe=
nd.
Like ldc, gdc gets many backends (more or less) for free.

GCC is now at 8.0.0, but what version of D is it using in gdc?

Is a desire to see D used more in IoT projects a reason for more people to =
be
interested in gdc and help get it's version updated with each GCC release.
Alternatively does D in IoT mean "use ldc". Does the LLVM suite support AVR
and ARM backends as GCC does?


 If you want a board with similar size too small arduino like the=20
 pro/pro mini that has an ARM chip, you should have a look at=20
 Teensy[2]. Using D to program ARM chips shouldn't be that hard.
=20
 [1] https://github.com/D-Programming-microD/GDC/tree/microD-4.9
 [2] https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/


Someone sent me a couple of ESP8266 development boards and a ESP-WROOM-32
development board, the intention being to play with them as MicroPython
devices. I see from the device websites, they are intended for use as stand=
ard
Arduino (presumably C) devices or as Lua controlled devices. Perhaps they
should be D controlled devices as well. I guess though the problem is which
firmware to load to then use as a D controlled device, and which toolchain =
to
use with it: Arduino mode has a full IDE/ICE set up. Also does D have the
library to deal with controlling hardware. How easy is it to build D codes
with gdc or ldc without Phobos, and without DRuntime?=20

Is D wthout Phobos useful for IoT or should one stick with C,Lua, and
MicroPython? Is IoT an opportunity for D or is it a false direction given D=
 is
an x86/x86_64 oriented programming language?

--=20
Russel.
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200
41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077
London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk
May 16 2018
next sibling parent rikki cattermole <rikki cattermole.co.nz> writes:
On 16/05/2018 8:48 PM, Russel Winder wrote:

 On Tue, 2018-05-15 at 22:28 +0000, Filipe Laíns via Digitalmars-d wrote:
 […]


 

 Actually, most arduinos use Atmel's chips so most of them are AVR.
 Apparently, there was some work done to port GDC to AVR [1]. I
 don't really know the usability of this but I suspect it's not
 much.


 
 [1] Looks very old and unmaintained, i.e. 4 years since the last commit. Also
 D (gdc) is now a part of the GCC suite, which may explain [1] being retred.
 GCC has AVR backends, thus gdc has an AVR backend. Also it has an ARM backend.
 Like ldc, gdc gets many backends (more or less) for free.
 
 GCC is now at 8.0.0, but what version of D is it using in gdc?
 
 Is a desire to see D used more in IoT projects a reason for more people to be
 interested in gdc and help get it's version updated with each GCC release.
 Alternatively does D in IoT mean "use ldc". Does the LLVM suite support AVR
 and ARM backends as GCC does?
 

 If you want a board with similar size too small arduino like the
 pro/pro mini that has an ARM chip, you should have a look at
 Teensy[2]. Using D to program ARM chips shouldn't be that hard.

 [1] https://github.com/D-Programming-microD/GDC/tree/microD-4.9
 [2] https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/


 
 Someone sent me a couple of ESP8266 development boards and a ESP-WROOM-32
 development board, the intention being to play with them as MicroPython
 devices. I see from the device websites, they are intended for use as standard
 Arduino (presumably C) devices or as Lua controlled devices. Perhaps they
 should be D controlled devices as well. I guess though the problem is which
 firmware to load to then use as a D controlled device, and which toolchain to
 use with it: Arduino mode has a full IDE/ICE set up. Also does D have the
 library to deal with controlling hardware. How easy is it to build D codes
 with gdc or ldc without Phobos, and without DRuntime?


-betterC and it /should/ be pretty easy.


 Is D wthout Phobos useful for IoT or should one stick with C,Lua, and
 MicroPython? Is IoT an opportunity for D or is it a false direction given D is
 an x86/x86_64 oriented programming language?


D is a 32bit+ oriented programming language.
Modern microchips are this :)



 May 16 2018



prev sibling next sibling parent  Mike Franklin <slavo5150 yahoo.com>  writes:


On Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at 08:48:26 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:


 Is D wthout Phobos useful for IoT or should one stick with 
 C,Lua, and MicroPython? Is IoT an opportunity for D or is it a 
 false direction given D is an x86/x86_64 oriented programming 
 language?


Using D for programming ARM Cortex-M 32-bit microcontrollers is 
one of my primary interests for learning and contributing to D.

https://github.com/JinShil/stm32f42_discovery_demo

When 2.081 arrives at LDC, I'll hopefully get that demonstration 
working with LDC.

-betterC is not necessary, but you have to be selective about 
which features you use in D.  Some parts of Phobos could be used, 
but they'd have to be selectively pulled out of  the source code.

Mike



 May 16 2018



prev sibling  parent reply NAme <email example.org>  writes:


On Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at 08:48:26 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:

 On Tue, 2018-05-15 at 22:28 +0000, Filipe Laíns via 
 Digitalmars-d wrote: […]

 



 Actually, most arduinos use Atmel's chips so most of them are 
 AVR. Apparently, there was some work done to port GDC to AVR 
 [1]. I don't really know the usability of this but I suspect 
 it's not much.


 [1] Looks very old and unmaintained, i.e. 4 years since the 
 last commit. Also D (gdc) is now a part of the GCC suite, which 
 may explain [1] being retred. GCC has AVR backends, thus gdc 
 has an AVR backend. Also it has an ARM backend. Like ldc, gdc 
 gets many backends (more or less) for free.

 GCC is now at 8.0.0, but what version of D is it using in gdc?

 Is a desire to see D used more in IoT projects a reason for 
 more people to be interested in gdc and help get it's version 
 updated with each GCC release. Alternatively does D in IoT mean 
 "use ldc". Does the LLVM suite support AVR and ARM backends as 
 GCC does?


 If you want a board with similar size too small arduino like 
 the pro/pro mini that has an ARM chip, you should have a look 
 at Teensy[2]. Using D to program ARM chips shouldn't be that 
 hard.
 
 [1] 
 https://github.com/D-Programming-microD/GDC/tree/microD-4.9 
 [2] https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/


 Someone sent me a couple of ESP8266 development boards and a 
 ESP-WROOM-32 development board, the intention being to play 
 with them as MicroPython devices. I see from the device 
 websites, they are intended for use as standard Arduino 
 (presumably C) devices or as Lua controlled devices. Perhaps 
 they should be D controlled devices as well. I guess though the 
 problem is which firmware to load to then use as a D controlled 
 device, and which toolchain to use with it: Arduino mode has a 
 full IDE/ICE set up. Also does D have the library to deal with 
 controlling hardware. How easy is it to build D codes with gdc 
 or ldc without Phobos, and without DRuntime?

 Is D wthout Phobos useful for IoT or should one stick with 
 C,Lua, and MicroPython? Is IoT an opportunity for D or is it a 
 false direction given D is an x86/x86_64 oriented programming 
 language?


LLVM has an AVR target.
I was able to run a simple LED blink program using betterC on an 
AVR attiny chip. I just output the IR from LDC, and put it 
through LLVM targeting AVR. No work needs to be done, D already 
works on AVR!



 May 27 2019



  parent  Martin Tschierschke <mt smartdolphin.de>  writes:


On Monday, 27 May 2019 at 15:13:31 UTC, NAme wrote:

 On Wednesday, 16 May 2018 at 08:48:26 UTC, Russel Winder wrote:

 On Tue, 2018-05-15 at 22:28 +0000, Filipe Laíns via 
 Digitalmars-d wrote: […]




[...]

 to deal with controlling hardware. How easy is it to build D 
 codes with gdc or ldc without Phobos, and without DRuntime?

 Is D wthout Phobos useful for IoT or should one stick with 
 C,Lua, and MicroPython? Is IoT an opportunity for D or is it a 
 false direction given D is an x86/x86_64 oriented programming 
 language?


 LLVM has an AVR target.
 I was able to run a simple LED blink program using betterC on 
 an AVR attiny chip. I just output the IR from LDC, and put it 
 through LLVM targeting AVR. No work needs to be done, D already 
 works on AVR!


Cool!



 May 27 2019



prev sibling  parent  Patrick Schluter <Patrick.Schluter bbox.fr>  writes:


On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 22:55:12 UTC, Israel wrote:

 On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive Arduino programming explosion 
 using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of 
 including turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in 
 the world  and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


 Well it is ARM so it should be possible.


No, it's AVR not ARM (in fact it's both, AVR for the small 
devices and ARM for the big ones).



 May 18 2019



prev sibling next sibling parent reply "Mike" <none none.com>  writes:


On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive Arduino programming explosion 
 using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of including 
 turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in the world  
 and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


As far as I know, none of the main D compilers (DMD, LDC, GDC) 
can generate code for 8-bit MCUs.  I remember reading somewhere 
that GDC has turned on a flag that specifically disables it.  
However, I think it would be cool if a motivated individual would 
actually flip this flag and see how far they can get.  I don't 
now if avr-gcc is part of the mainline GCC branch, though.  In 
summary, the Atmel ATmega needs some infrastructure first.

The ARM Cortex-M based Arduino boards (Arduino Due for example) 
can already be programmed with D using either the LDC compiler 
(with ARM Thumb backend) or the GDC compiler.  I've encountered 
several bugs trying to get a bare-bones druntime compiled with 
the LDC compiler, but the LDC folks have been attentive and 
appear to be addressing them (Thank you!).  A minimal "Hello 
World" how-to was created on the D Wiki [1] to help users get 
started with this.  There are also instructions for building a 
GDC cross-compiler on a Linux host [2] (Thank you, GDC!).  A 
presentation was also given at DConf 2014 providing an 
introduction to some work done on this platform [3].  Most of my 
work has stalled as I try to find a way to make the experience 
more polished, and less like patchwork.

Bottom line, though, is druntime has not been ported to the ARM 
Cortex-M platform, so that is the barrier.  The good news is that 
it's not necessary to have the entire druntime ported to do basic 
C-style programming in D.  In fact, a simple object.d file with a 
few dummy implementations will get you quite far [4].  The 
current druntime isn't suited very well to bare-metal 
programming, and really expects an operating system to exist 
underneath.  There have been efforts to try an change that, but 
they've mostly met resistance.  All work on this platform 
currently exists outside of the main D programming language 
repositories.

There also appears to be a more mature implementation of druntime 
for an STM32 MCU (ARM Cortex-M4) in minlibd [5].

I hope that gives you some of the information you were looking 
for.

Mike

[1] 
http://wiki.dlang.org/Minimal_semihosted_ARM_Cortex-M_%22Hello_World%22
[2] 
http://wiki.dlang.org/Bare_Metal_ARM_Cortex-M_GDC_Cross_Compiler
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5m0m_ZG9e8
[4] 
https://github.com/JinShil/D_Runtime_ARM_Cortex-M_study/wiki/1.3-Structs
[5] https://bitbucket.org/timosi/minlibd



 Oct 25 2014



  parent  "Trass3r" <un known.com>  writes:


 my work has stalled as I try to find a way to make the 
 experience more polished, and less like patchwork.


It's a shame this went nowhere:
https://issues.dlang.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12270



 Oct 26 2014



prev sibling next sibling parent  Ethan Scott <ethanscott278 gmail.com>  writes:


On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive 
 (https://hackr.io/tutorials/learn-arduino) Arduino programming 
 explosion using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of including 
 turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in the world  
 and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


This was popular a few years ago, now 3 years later and it still 
is something amazing.
Remote applications are truly countless. In fact this was one of 
my final year projects of engineering. I had actually developed a 
smart vehicle. I could control the headlights, infotainment 
system and the air conditioner from my phone. It took me over a 
year to get it done, but I did it.
3 years ago, I think I was taking these arduino programming 
classes where I was trying to figure out which port is GND.
Time flies indeed



 May 15 2018



prev sibling  parent  john <diveshjaindj6 gmail.com>  writes:


On Saturday, 25 October 2014 at 21:49:53 UTC, Ty Tower wrote:

 Has anybody tapped the massive 
 (http://letsfindcourse.com/arduino Arduino) programming 
 explosion using D instead of C++ ?
 I got started on Arduino a few years back and it has taken the 
 microprocessor popularity through the roof .
 Unfortunately you download the IDE (Integrated Development 
 Environment) from Arduino.cc direct and then using a $3 
 development board with a 328p chip on it ,proceed to program 
 the  chip to do pretty much whatever you can think of including 
 turning stuff on with your mobile from anywhere in the world  
 and much much more .

 I wondered if someone could adapt it to D ?


NO



 May 17 2019