Céu-Maker: easy-to-install, up-to-date integrated environment for Céu-Arduino and pico-Céu development

Céu-Maker is a programming environment that integrates Céu-Arduino and pico-Céu in a single package for Windows. The project already existed before Google Summer of Code 2018, but lacked documentation and examples of use, and required too much work from developers to generate a new release. Also, some features needed improvement.

Céu-Maker integrates 4 repositories, and the work done during the Google Summer of Code were added in the pre-v0.40 branch:

• Céu: https://github.com/ceu-lang/ceu/tree/pre-v0.40
• Céu-Arduino: https://github.com/ceu-lang/ceu-arduino/tree/pre-v0.40
• pico-Céu: https://github.com/ceu-lang/pico-ceu/tree/pre-v0.40
• Céu-Maker: https://github.com/ceu-lang/ceu-maker/tree/pre-v0.40

The Céu-Maker version developed in Google Summer of Code can be found in Céu-Maker releases page.

Next, we will present the contributions to Céu-Maker, explaning the motivation and implementation.

Automate the generation of a new release of Céu-Maker

To create a new release of Céu-Maker, developers needed to manually clone the repositories, checkout the target version for each of them and use a Makefile to copy the needed folders to the release. They also needed to:

• do some configuration in the Makefile (edit Makefile.dirs to point to the source repositories);
• download third-party binaries if the command make was not available on Windows (which was generally the case);
• manually use WinRAR to generate a self-extracting executable.

Now, changes in Makefile are no longer necessary, make binary was included in Céu-Maker repository and the WinRAR process was automated. The developer only need to execute a single command using GitBash, that is normally available to anyone who uses Git on Windows.

Allow user to select a board during Céu-Arduino compilation

Now the user can select the Arduino board and port using Céu-Maker. We developed a GUI application (located in /SelectDevice) that, when the user compiles a source code, list all the connected Arduino boards and allow the user to select one.

Tutorial to integrate Visual Studio Code with Céu-Maker

We created a short tutorial to explain how to add an option in Visual Studio Code to compile Céu source code without leaving the code editor. The tutorial can be accessed here. It seems like will be possible to install the VSCode without privileges (check the discussion here). When this become a reality, the Notepad++ could be replaced.

Pico-Céu API for serial ports (Usart)

A pico-Céu API to facilitate the use of serial communication. It was basead on the Céu-Arduino Usart API so that the user could use the same API in both enviroments. The API can be checked in /ceu-lang/pico-ceu/include/usart.ceu.

Code examples with explanation

During the GSoC we developed the following tutorials:

• race.ceu: a pico-Céu game used to explain features of pico-Céu, such as graphical draw, sound, parallel compositions and window configuration;
• race-frames: how to develop the race game using frame features;
• move-net: in this example we explain how to use Céu NETWORK features creating a distributed version of move.ceu example, in which a user of one instance of the application can movement a white pixel around the window and a user from the other instance can control a green one;
• echo-usart: demonstrate the use of usart API. In this example, the pico-Céu application receives a message from an Arduino connected via serial port and send it back, working as an echo server.