In 80s, BASIC was one of the famous languages for children to learn programing at first. A computer for consumers has limited resource to run any programing language, however there are some other good machines like MSX, Family basic on Family Computer in Japan. I think many senior programmers learnt the fun of programming.
Today we can enjoy most of all programming language in free of charge. I think however it might be too complicated to begin the first step of learning programming language since it’s difficult to prepare proper condition to making what they want like a game application after a “Hello World”.
Then I decided to create a small computer that anybody can make a simple game with a script language. This is the “Family mruby”.
Family mruby is a stand-alone development environment based on an original PCB, which can edit and execute Ruby code with a VGA display and a PS/2 keyboard. You can enjoy Ruby programming without a PC to send code to the board.
(Remark: Now development of firmware is ongoing, PC is needed when you update the firmware.)
Family mruby has following properties.
- Enabling stand-alone Ruby environment using mruby.
- Editing and compiling code is done on the PCB.
- Enabling to utilize VGA signal output and PS/2 keyboard input without any additional IC（Thanks to FabGL）
- Supporting Micro SD card and AUX output. (developing)
Development is ongoing.
https://kishima.github.io/family_mruby/
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