French version

[selmen2004]

I have created a french version of this editor here : https://educ.selmen.tn/python/ anyway of integrating it here?
by the way , anyone knows why the microbit_blocks( that this project depends of ) project is no longer updated ? I sent a PR with french translation with no response since time @ntoll

[ntoll]

@selmen2004 hi... I am no longer involved in this project. Sorry... :-/ @carlosperate is probably the person to whom you should be speaking.

A good reason why the microbit_blocks project is no longer maintained is because micro:bit rejected it as a part of the editor. Why continue working on things folks will never agree to use? As for why, you'll just have to ask them.

In any case, and independently of micro:bit, a teenager called Josh has created Edublocks: https://edublocks.org/ You should check it out... he's fostering quite a wonderful community around it and he definitely welcomes contributions..!

[selmen2004]

Why do you say that ? your project is still used in the master brunch of the project , maybe it is not enabled by default , but it is still there. By the way , here in Tunisia we teach robotics for the first time in secondary , and your addition of blockly-enabled python editor for microbit is very helpful for our students , so we thank you so much for that @ntoll and thanks for your suggestion of edublocks , will look at them when possible

[jaustin]

Hi @selmen2004. This is fantastic, thanks! We’ve been thinking about how to integrate language translations, and making it work for the community is essential!

For the micro:bit website, we have translations in a system called CrowdIn, which is a great community platform and has really helped us manage the translation process. We think that’s the best route for the Python Editor too, as it also has things like translation memory (so if someone’s already translated the string ‘pins’ from the website, we get that translation in the editor immediately). If we got this setup, would you be comfortable contributing translations via that? It would mean some scripting at this end to pull the translations and publish them into the repository, and then a bit of community discussion about how we display the translations and choose which language to use.

As for blocks, it’s something we’re about to start looking at again - back in 2016 we didn’t have enough time, or enough people in the Micro:bit Educational Foundation, to support the development of blocks to a level where it would work well for the main micro:bit audience (things like how the blocks were loaded, saved, stored in the hex file, how you transitioned between blocks and text, all indicated it would be a bigger project than we could manage). As you note @selmen2004 it’s still there for people like you who are able to experiment and for us to work on in the future. I’m really glad it’s been useful for you!

As we’re able to commit some more time to this editor, we’re trying to work out what’s right for the audience and the developer community around it to make this a great Python experience, but also a great point of reference for people using the libraries we’re building in order to make their own editors (like Edublocks - for example here’s what we’re planning with the filesystem https://us14.campaign-archive.com/?u=e1c30f24b90ff3d70275cfff2&id=7ed1e11da4)

Do you have any feedback on using the blocks that might be useful?

[ntoll]

@selmen2004 My strong advice would be to use Edublocks. The developer is quick to respond to feature requests and his users love it. He also has a bunch of resources contributed by the wider EduBlocks community and he's also interested in help with translations too (the project is used all over the world). Drop him a line via the project GitHub (https://github.com/AllAboutCode/EduBlocks).

Thank you for your kind words and I'm pleased at least someone finds the work useful. :+1:

[selmen2004]

First , @jaustin thanks a lot for your answer , I am aware of Crowdin translation system , I am also part of a translation team for arabic language of microbit.org (even am not really active lately ) I have tested translating the whole python editor myself , including the blocks system and a simulator ( found on a fork of this repository , based on create.withcode.uk simulator , which is based on MS MakeCode makecode simulator ) , from my point of view , the python editor itself doesn't really need integrating into crowdin , a simple js file for each language is quite enough , just like blockly and blockly_microbit sub-projects , what needs really a better system for translating is the documentation . But whatever the situation is , I will try my best to help in translating , for french and if I have time arabic.

As I said before , here in Tunisia we teach robotics for the first time in history on secondary , we are free to use any plateform ( micro:bit / arduino ... ) , the ministery has not provided any equipment ( thats why we use simulators ) , also due to currency laws it is not easy to buy anything from outside the country (I got my micro;bit using some freelance money ) . I'm a big fan of microbit for education that's why I try to provide enough resources for colleagues in french (our teaching language here ) about it , I also started translating micropython docs (or finishing as someone else already started ) and translating Dalek Hack Game ( dalekhack.microbit.org ).

I am happy to see the next steps you are implementing on this editor , really interesting . I think we lack code completion too . as for the blocks , they are very helpful for our students who are familiar with Scratch blocks in previous years , our programs until now (still 1st year ) are very simple that's why we are not having real issues there yet . Thanks again

[selmen2004]

@ntoll thanks a lot ! I had a look of Edublocks , really interesting , already shared the link for colleagues and they liked it , what is good also is their help books which are nice and helpful. I like the fact they produce exact python code , as we teach python too

[ntoll]

@selmen2004 great stuff..! I look forward to seeing where you take EduBlocks because it's a really fascinating project and Josh, despite being just 14, is extraordinarily user focused. Best of luck and if there's anything I can do (Python wise) please don't hesitate to reach out (ntoll at ntoll dot org). Also, if you're into robotics, have you looked into Adafruit's "Cricket" board and CircuitPython (their own version of MicroPython)..?

[selmen2004]

@ntoll just 14 ! great ! I love robotics , even if I am still new there , but I'm out of options here and it is not easy to get equipment (due to currency laws that restrict buying from outside country ) so we are limited to what we have : arduino and recentely microbit , what is good about micro:bit is that it is affordable ( well not much , it is sold over 100 TND here ) and it contains enough inputs and outputs to be used without accessories , I have tried hard to get kitronik Motor Driver Board for my microbit with no luck ...

[ntoll]

@selmen2004 if you ping me a direct email, I have some spare boards (micro:bit and some Adafruit), and we can organise how I can post them to you. I'd rather the boards be used for something useful rather than sit on my shelf.