Why do PICAXE need interpreters?

[leftyretro]

I'm with Retrolefty on this one.

Calling yourself a "programmer" after using a PICAXE is the about same as someone calling themselves a "chef" after thawing a couple of frozen dinners.

If you are serious or have more than "KISS" level projects, you will spend the time and effort to learn a real programming language. Just go out looking for a job and tell them "i'm a programmer of PICAXEs" and they will politely show you the door.

Don't get me wrong, there is a place for junk food and PICAXES, but you can't live off them.

Let's keep it in perspective. the PICAXE is a handy little device but not the be-all, do-all, greatest thing since sliced bread.

That was kind of what I was somewhat unsuccessfully tying to say. The Picaxe is a great way to start out, especially for someone with little or no programming experience and the Picaxe may be all some ever need to use for their applications. However it's nice to know there are low cost growth path choices for those that may want to move on or need more power for certain applications. I still often recommend Picaxe to some people starting off, so it's not about one path being 'better' then another path. More choices is always better then fewer choices.

My point was you don't have to limit yourself to the choice of either just low cost Picaxe or high priced commercial closed source compilers. While I do understand the advantages of learning and using assembly language I personally would never give up the convenience, speed and library support that modern high level languages offer, especially when you can use an open source free one. Rev-ed has done a great job and offers great products at fair prices but there are advantages to being able to take advantage of open source systems that frees one from some of the limitations of proprietary software systems.

Lefty

 

[Tim036]

The number of Electronic Engineers designing circuits in the UK is slowly shrinking. Very few are being trained compared to the last half of last century so its a long term bleak future.

For one off solutions in the Laboratory Picaxe is great !

I'd bet the number of Engineers writing Pic software for mass production in the UK are in the low thousands or less.

Because Picaxe is really quick and neat a lot of folk will be using it who are not Electronic Engineers, which is excellent !



Tim

 

[Jeremy Leach]

To me it's return on investment ... investment of time, energy, grey-matter, money. Picaxes can bring big returns with minimal investment.

If a picaxe makes a 'box' function the way you want it to, why would you want to look elsewhere? I expect there are many commercial products out there with picaxes inside that are no less professional than ones written in more difficult languages.

It's a no-brainer to me to stick to picaxes if they will meet requirements and only look elsewhere if they don't.

I'm currently considering the jump, because I'm dabbling in motor control with encoded shaft feedback and don't think the picaxe will be fast enough to handle the gray code and counters at top speed. So I've been reading all your tips about 'the other side' (and in previous threads) and trying to make my mind up - but really don't want to

 

[hippy]

As always, it's not about an absolute best or better but more or less appropriate tools to do the job. The PICAXE has never claimed to be a universal panacea and no alternative is.

It's not really fair to suggest that the PICAXE does not have a real programming language or is inferior to other products and being a good programmer is about a lot more than a matter of which programming language is used.

Holden cars are perhaps the most publicly noted company who have used PICAXE's in their concept cars and there are other commercial users. PICAXE is used for a wide range of applications including NASA sponsored research projects.

http://www.siliconchip.com.au/cms/A_105700/article.html

 

[Dippy]

Yes, nail on head. And I think some of the analogies have been a little unfair. PICAXE BASIC is not aimed at writing top-end stuff, it doesn't pretend or claim to be.
But it can certainly train the brain in writing fairly efficiently.

I've seen numerous examples on this Forum of how novice code can be changed by experienced users to save space and run more quickly. This same skill can be translated, in principle, to any language.

Of course if you are applying for a top-end job then you will be expected to have specific experience/quals. That's a given. But if going for a lower job and to be able to say you have experience on PICs is going to help. If you are good in BASIC then you can be good in any other language with effort. A persistenly bad programmer ( a lost cause) should retrain as a plumber or cook.

Anyone can be a BAD programmer in ANY language.
It depends on your brain, your training and/or experience.

The advantage of a compiled language is that badly written stuff usually runs a lot faster than a well written equivalent PICAXE prog and so the 'onlooker' is still impressed

Compiled languages tend to give you access to every aspect of the micro with greater control but require yet another learning curve and greater knowedge of the micro is required.

Anyway, horses for courses huh?