MicroPython quo vadis

[Andreas]

Weil das Ökosystem seit einiger Zeit ein wenig fragmentiert, hier eine Stammbaumsammlung mit Übersicht über verschiedene Forks und Anverwandte.

Überblick

Python-on-a-chip and PyMite, a Python Virtual Machine

• https://code.google.com/archive/p/python-on-a-chip/
• https://www.slideshare.net/stoggi/python-on-a-chip
• https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1418622
• https://github.com/jsnyder/python-on-a-chip
• https://wiki.python.org/moin/PyMite

Vanilla MicroPython

The genuine MicroPython for STM32 by Damien George et al.

• https://github.com/micropython/micropython
• https://micropython.readthedocs.io/

Pycom MicroPython for ESP32

A MicroPython fork for ESP32 by Pycom.

• https://github.com/pycom/pycom-micropython-sigfox

LoBo MicroPython for ESP32

A MicroPython fork for ESP32 by Boris Lovosevic (@loboris).

• https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo/wiki
• https://loboris.eu/forum/

CircuitPython for Cortex-M0 and -M4

By Adafruit.

• https://circuitpython.org/
• https://github.com/adafruit/circuitpython

Pycopy

By Paul Sokolovsky.
Focusing on uasyncio for MicroPython and more.

• https://github.com/pfalcon/pycopy
• https://pycopy.readthedocs.io/

Zerynth VM, formerly called VIPER

• https://community.hiveeyes.org/t/zerynth-virtual-machine/2356
• https://github.com/zerynth
• https://www.zerynth.com/

Neuigkeiten

2013

• Damien George makes MicroPython’s https://github.com/micropython/micropython/commit/429d7194.
• Damien George announces https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=1864.

2014

• Damien George releases MicroPython 1.0, see also https://github.com/dpgeorge/micropython/releases/tag/v1.0.
• Paul Sokolovsky announces https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=85.

2015

• https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=744

2017

• Adafruit forks CircuitPython.
  • https://circuitpython.org/
  • https://www.adafruit.com/category/956
  • https://blog.adafruit.com/2017/01/09/welcome-to-the-adafruit-circuitpython-beta/

2018

• Boris Lovosevic forks https://github.com/loboris/MicroPython_ESP32_psRAM_LoBo.
• Time to Say Goodbye to Arduino and Go On to Micropython/ Adafruit Circuitpython? by Andreas Spiess
• https://melbournemicropythonmeetup.github.io/November-2018-Meetup/
• CircuitPython 4.0.0 Alpha 2 released

2019

• Re. dual-core performance on ESP32.

  And the performance improvement of dual versus single core is staggering! I’m amazed how much faster my app now is running

  – https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6496&p=36972&hilit=javascript#p38237

• New uasyncio version
  • https://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic.php?t=7265
  • https://github.com/micropython/micropython/pull/5332
  • https://github.com/peterhinch/micropython-async/blob/master/README.md#31-the-new-version

[Andreas]

State of the onion by Tomasz Switon

MicroPython – Pythonic Edge Computing

@Tomasz Switon

Alternatives

There aren’t many alternatives to MicroPython, and there seems to be only one that doesn’t directly descend from it. For the latter, there are two that are worth discussing as viable alternatives.

CircuitPython is a fork of MicroPython, designed to be used with Adafruit hardware. Its main purpose is to teach programming with microcontrollers. There are minor differences between it and MicroPython, but the code is largely the same.

Pycom is an IoT platform which provides clients with hardware, software and networking solutions. The firmware for its MCUs is open source and based on MicroPython. Pycom has nicely reimplemented AWS IoT Python SDK, which makes it easily installable on ESP32 microcontrollers running MicroPython.

The only alternative for MicroPython out there with its own codebase is Zerynth. This started off as Viper and it is a hybrid of Python and C language. It is typed and tries to combine the easy of Python development with the control of C. Zerynth is also an IoT platform and provides integration with many Cloud IoT services. Some of Zerynth’s language structure is available to use inside MicroPython to optimise code performance.

[Andreas]

The old port of MicroPython to ESP32 went dormant around two years ago with MicroPython version 1.9.2.

micropython/micropython-esp32

That’s probably the time Pycom MicroPython was left behind after Genuine MicroPython went on. On Pycom MicroPython, we are stuck with MicroPython version 1.9.4 right now.

[Andreas]

More news where the Genuine/Vanilla MicroPython is heading towards.

Issue: Roadmap for next release (v1.11 -> v2.0?)

[Andreas]

Differences between CircuitPython and MicroPython

– CircuitPython — Adafruit CircuitPython 0.0.0 documentation

CircuitPython

• includes ports for MicroChip SAMD21 (Commonly known as M0 in Adafruit product names) and SAMD51 (M4).
• supports only SAMD21, SAMD51, and nRF52840 ports.
• tracks MicroPython’s releases (not master).
• floats (aka decimals) are enabled for all builds.
• error messages are translated into 10+ languages.
• does not support concurrency within Python (including interrupts and threading). Some concurrency is achieved with native modules for tasks that require it such as audio file playback.

Behavior

Not replicated here.

API

• Unified hardware APIs. Documented on ReadTheDocs.
• API docs are rST within the C files in shared-bindings .
• No machine API.

Modules

• No module aliasing. ( uos and utime are not available as os and time respectively.) Instead os, time, and random are CPython compatible.
• New storage module which manages file system mounts. (Functionality from uos in MicroPython.)
• Modules with a CPython counterpart, such as time , os and random , are strict subsets of their CPython version. Therefore, code from CircuitPython is runnable on CPython but not necessarily the reverse.
• tick count is available as time.monotonic()

[Andreas]

@Andreas

On Pycom MicroPython, we are stuck with MicroPython version 1.9.4 right now.

We are so happy about the leap forward through Pycom Firmware Release 1.20.1, which bumps the Espressif SDK to IDF V3.2 and also brings us MicroPython 1.11.

[Andreas]

Roadmap for next release (v1.11 -> v2.0?)

[Andreas]

A MicroPython-port to the energy-friendly Silicon Labs EFM32 MCUs for ultra-low power applications might be coming, see also EFM32 port - MicroPython Forum.

[Andreas]

Linux kernel port of MicroPython

@David Lechner

So you can build MicroPython as a Linux kernel module, then modprobe micropython and be able to peek/poke anything in the kernel via FFI?

@Yonatan Goldschmidt

Basically, yep.

---

RFC: Linux kernel port

See also the Linux kernel MicroPython port README.