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bbcmicrobit / PythonEditor

A MicroPython editor for the BBC micro:bit that works with browsers.
https://python.microbit.org/
MIT License
198 stars 129 forks source link

Feature Idea: simple and advanced mode #23

Open whaleygeek opened 7 years ago

whaleygeek commented 7 years ago

The new Blockly is brilliant. There are some really nice Python features you have surfaced into blocks.

However, there are a lot of palettes and a lot of blocks, and it looks a bit overwhelming as a starters language the first time you try it.

Would it be possible to have a beginners and an advanced mode? Where beginners mode contains a smaller number of palettes and blocks to get people started, but then the advanced mode adds all the other ones in?

I'm not sure yet how we would choose the subset that goes into beginners mode - perhaps watch some children using the editor for the first time and see which blocks they use, and base it on that? Or look at a representative base of existing python resources coded into blocks, and only include the blocks required to implement those resources?

ntoll commented 7 years ago

I reticent about this since blocks is beginner's mode. This just adds yet another layer of configuration and you've not yet provided any evidence that people need it.