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Avionics Programming Tutorial for Beginners (Win 10)

Jacky Wong.

To do: Introduce using GitHub, and with Atom/VS Code.

GitHub

In order to manage the avionics files properly, we will be using GitHub, a service that provides a collaboration platform for software developers through Git, a version-control software system.

What does that mean?

Code is held inside GitHub servers, where anybody can look at it (unless the code is held privately). Only authorized people can modify the code.

A code project is held inside a repository. This repository, or repo, has multiple branches, which are different versions of the same code, usually at different places in development. Git also keeps track of the history of the code, so anybody can see who wrote what piece of code.

Getting Started with GitHub, the Easy Way

  1. Create a GitHub account.

    • Go to GitHub.com, and use the prompt to create an account.

    GitHub.com splash

    • You will see a few screens that ask you about your subscription and coding experience. You can answer them, or not. As a student, you do have access to GitHub Pro, but I personally don't use it much.
    • GitHub will automatically create a hello-world repo for you. Look through it at your leisure.

  2. Contact me, Jacky Wong (on Slack), and let me know your username.

  3. Download GitHub Desktop. This is a good graphical GitHub interface, good for getting started with contributing.

  4. Set up GitHub Desktop.

    • For whatever reason, I couldn't properly uninstall GitHub Desktop to demonstrate, but go through the initial dialogues and sign in with your GitHub account.
    • You will see a screen similar to this, but you won't have a list of repos, unless you have the hello-world repo I mentioned earlier.

    GitHub Desktop splash

    • Click on "Clone a repository from the Internet..."
    • You will see this, or something similar:

    GitHub Desktop clone

    • Go to the avionics repo, located at CURocketEngineering/avionics_main
    • Click on "Clone or download", then copy the link.
    • Go back to your GitHub Desktop, then paste the link in the first box.

    GitHub Desktop URL

    The application should auto-fill your local path, but in case it isn't, choose an appropriate folder you want all of your GitHub repos to be saved. The avionics_main repo will be a subfolder inside that. Click "Clone". You will now have the repo on your own machine.

    Local repo

Congratulations, now you have GitHub on your Windows 10 computer!

Python

Python is the language of our avionics code, newly created for the 2019-2020 year. It is a relatively easy-to-use programming language, and can be very powerful yet also easy. I'm not going to teach it here, as I don't actually know it well. Instead, here's how to install it.

Now, you can do this the easy way or hard way. I'll let you choose.

The Easy Way

  1. Go to the Microsoft Store, through your Start Menu.
  2. Use the search bar, and search python 3.7.
  3. Find "Python 3.7", the one by the Python Software Foundation. It will look like this:

Python in MS Store

  1. Go through the install process. I can't actually go through this process on my machine, either because I already have Python, or because I changed some Windows settings that make my machine incompatible.

The Hard Way

  1. It's not actually much harder, but will install Python without leaving anything out (which is more than necessary for avionics, probably). Regardless, go to the official Python website, specifically Using Python on Windows.
  2. You can read through the good documentation, but for now, scroll down and click "Windows x86-64 executable installer".
  3. Once downloaded, open the executable and run the installer. Again, I can't show what this looks like as I've already installed Python.

Python install

You can use the default settings, but I highly recommend checking "Add Python 3.7 to PATH". This makes it so that you can easily execute Python programs through the command line, if you need to. 4. Click "Install Now". Go through the steps.

Congratulations, now you have Python 3.7 on your Windows 10 computer!

Code Editor

You will need a good code editor, or integrated development environment, to easily view and develop code. I recommend Atom or Visual Studio Code, the former of which I use personally for Windows 10. I will be showing both, but my VS Code install is fresh and will look pretty close to yours.

Atom

Atom is the "official" editor of GitHub, created by GitHub. It is very bare bones on a fresh install, but you can customize it very heavily to suit your needs and preferences exactly, if that sounds like what you want, keep reading.

  1. Download Atom.
  2. Install Atom. I can't show the install process as running the installer just updates my own Atom. There shouldn't be any hidden tricks to this.
  3. Launch Atom.

Packages

This is where Atom shines. You can install any package that suits your needs.

  1. Once Atom is open, go to the top, File > Settings. You will get this, but in a different color scheme.

Atom settings

  1. Go to "Install" on the left bar. You can go install whatever you'd like, but I've included a list below of what I recommend, and some personally use.
  2. You can toggle between "Packages" and "Themes" to search for them. These will show up under "Packages" and "Themes" respectively on the left bar once installed.
  3. For a list of what you can install, go to Atom's website for the community Packages and Themes.

Congratulations, now you have Atom on your Windows 10 computer!

Visual Studio Code

VS Code is Microsoft's official code editor, as well as what they recommend for Python development on Windows. It is arguably more powerful than Atom, especially out of the box, and will provide everything you will probably need and then some.

  1. Download VS Code.
  2. Install VS Code. There should be no hiccups. It will look like this:

VS Code splash

  1. Click the "Python" button under "Tools and languages" to install Python support.
  2. Because I've not used VS Code myself, follow Microsoft's excellent guide to finish installation, specifically under the heading "Install Visual Studio Code". If you run into any issues, let me know, and I might be able to help.

Congratulations, now you (should) have VS Code on your Windows 10 computer!

Atom Packages

If Atom already has these installed, great. Keep in mind, using more packages may slow down your Atom installation. Again, go to Packages and Themes on Atom's website and browse at your leisure.

  • ide-python > Should provide everything essential for Python development inside Atom.
  • atom-beautify > Makes code inside Atom look good and readable.
  • highlight-selected > Allows you to easily see occurrences of a selected group of characters.
  • file-icons > Adds icons to your Atom directory browser.
  • bracket-matcher > Allows you to see matching brackets and hop between them with Ctrl+M.
  • minimap > Shows a preview of your entire code file, like a minimap in a video game, and allows you to easily scrub to what you want.
  • tree-view > Provides a way to see and open files in your current project.
  • whitespace > Good tool for to ensure all your tabs are spaces.
  • Themes: Choose what you think looks good, but keep in mind that you also need a syntax theme as well as a UI theme. I personally use atom-material-ui and atom-material-syntax.