BASIC is NOT dead!!

[Heckler]

I took a look over at zbasic and really can't (from the quick look I took there) make any comparison, it may be more powerfull..

BUT I can say that I have found the ESPBASIC to be extreemly easy to try out. I also found it to be amazingly easy to do some very complex things like...

> generate an email or text message
> get time from an NTP time server
> parse the NTP time value into individual components HH, MM, SS, year, day of week, etc.
> generate a webpage with buttons to change gpio pins
> create input fields on a web page for temperature set points, text or value entry fields.
> read the temperature from a ds18b20 temp sensor

and all of the above things can be communicated back to you via a web page or (if you choose) to your microcontroller or terminal window via its tx/rx serial interface at 9600 baud (or both!!)


The IDE is built into the OS and resides on the esp module.
The module starts out as an AP with no credentials required which allows you to easily locate it and connect to it from any wifi enabled device like a smart phone, tablet, laptop or PC with wifi capabilities. Then you can easily enter credentials for your local network wifi and then the module will, upon reset, connect to that network and provide its DHCP acquired IP address via the serial port that you used to flash the BASIC OS into it. So if you open a terminal window and watch the COM port of the USB adapter you used to flash it with you will see it attempt to connect to the network and it will print out the newly acquired IP address.

And as a fall back, if for some reason it can not make a successful connection using the credentials you provided it, the module will default back to an AP so you can reconnect to it directly and review/correct its settings.

You program and upload your code directly from an internal web page IDE on the module. NO ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE REQUIRED ON YOUR PC other than the initial small flashing program.

I must say I have been trying to reach this level of capability with these little ESP8266-01 modules for almost a year now and this ESPBASIC has hit a home run for me.

Now, keep in mind that the espbasic is certainly not going to be anywhere near as capable as our beloved? PIC Basic. But for me that is not the point. I can now easily add wifi capability to any of my microcontroller projects or create simple projects like temperature alarms that can generate an email/text msg and many, many others.

For anyone like me who undersands BASIC and struggles with C, python, LUA, or 'fill in the blank' language then this has opened a new door.

but I should add... YMMV

Give it a go, and I'd be happy to share any of my test code. There are also several example programs listed on his website, which is separate from the forum that he links to.