Getting started with

the BBC micro:bit

Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

Table of contents
Table of contents 2

The micro:bit 4

Getting up and running 5

Loading the web app for the first time 5
Creating Code 6

JavaScript from Code Kingdoms 8

Your first script 8
Flashing the micro:bit 11
The hidden JavaScript 11

Continuing with JavaScript 13

JavaScript on the micro:bit 13
JavaScript 'at large' 13

Block Editor from Microsoft 14

Block Editor 14
Quick Block Editor Script 15
Copy your script to the micro:bit 16
Converting your script to Touch Develop 16

Continuing with Block Editor 17

On the micro:bit website 17
Elsewhere 17

Touch Develop from Microsoft 18

The Touch Develop interface 18
A quick Touch Develop script 19

Continuing with Touch Develop 21

On the micro:bit website 21
Elsewhere 21

MicroPython from The Python Software Foundation 22

The MicroPython interface 22
Two quick scripts 23

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

We're going to need a bigger boat 24

A different editor 24

Continuing with MicroPython 25

Going mobile 26
Get connected 26
Mobile coding 27

Electronics projects 28
Block Editor 28
Touch Develop 28
MicroPython 28

Glossary 29

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

The micro:bit
First conceived in 2012 and released in 2016, the BBC micro:bit is a small (4 x 5 cm)
microcontroller board intended to encourage children to get more involved in computer
coding, electronics and making.

Micro:bits were given away free to every year 7 (ages 11-12) school-child in Britain in the
2015-16 academic year – around one million boards in total. Once this aim had been
achieved, they were put on sale to the public. At present they are available from sellers
such as Pimoroni and The PiHut in the UK.

The micro:bit features 25 LEDs in a 5 x 5 grid, two push-buttons, a compass, an

accelerometer, five 'large' physical pins suitable for crocodile clips or banana plugs, and a
further 20 small pins available through an edge-connector. They can be powered by an
external battery pack or via USB, and communicate through the same USB port or built-in
Bluetooth.

The BBC and its partners have provided options for programming via a web-app, mobile
devices or desktop software, in multiple languages, and using a variety of interfaces
ranging from drag-and-drop, through touch-optimised, to full text.

At a recommended selling price of £13 (generally £16 including an optional battery pack),
the micro:bit is a great introduction to coding and electronics.

Front and back view of the micro:bit – components are helpfully labelled

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

Getting up and running

Loading the web app for the first time

At first, most of your time writing code for the micro:bit will be spent in a web browser,
using the micro:bit web-app. You can find this at microbit.co.uk/app/ – the first time you
visit, it should look something like this:

The micro:bit web-app

Depending on your browser and security settings, you may be asked for permission to
download and install a file – you should definitely reply ‘yes’, because ...

After you've visited the web-app that first time, you can visit microbit.co.uk/app/ even
if you're not online and you'll be able to access all your scripts as well!

Let's have a quick look at that page and see what options we have in the menu-bar:

Home – takes you to the BBC micro:bit homepage

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

Create Code – start a new script (more on this soon)

Help – opens the help page on the BBC micro:bit site

My Scripts – shows a list of all your scripts, on the same page as the image above
(scripts will appear above the green 'Create Code' box once you have some!)

Sign in – unless you are a teacher at a school that has registered for the site, you can
(and should) ignore this option

And then there are the two big, friendly buttons in the main panel:

• Create Code – start a new script (see the next section)

• Import Code – lets you upload either a compiled .hex file (in which case it'll also de-
compile back to the original code) or a .jsz script file

A .hex says what? As we're going to see shortly, there are four ways of writing code
for the micro:bit – but the device doesn't understand any of the languages that your
code is going to be written in. Instead, the web-app puts your code into a compiler
which converts it into a series of instructions that the micro:bit can understand, and
generates a compiled file which you can then flash to your micro:bit. This compiled
code is written in hexidecimal, and the files are called .hex files

Creating Code

The next thing to do, naturally enough, is to create your first script – so click on Create
Code (either in the menu bar or that big, friendly green button).

This will bring up the following options screen

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Selecting how to create your code

You're offered four different ways that you can write code for the micro:bit, together with an
option to Import Code – which does exactly the same as it did from the previous screen.

The four coding options are:

Name What Is It? Good for

JavaScript A simple but powerful drag-and-drop interface Beginners &

Code Kingdoms hides the JavaScript underneath intermediates

Block Editor A drag-and-drop editor, visually similar to Scratch, Beginners

Microsoft hiding TouchDevelop code underneath

Touch Develop A coding interface developed specifically to work Beginners &

Microsoft well on touch-screen devices intermediates

MicroPython A full programming language based on the widely- Intermediates &

Python Foundation used Python enthusiasts

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JavaScript from Code Kingdoms

Your first script

For your first script, we're going to use the JavaScript editor from Code Kingdoms. Click on
the CK logo to launch the CK editor.

2
6
4

1 Script name The editor will provide a temporary name – feel free to change it!

2 Coding panel Code is shown (drag-and-drop) or written (text) here

3 Menu sidebar Select tab to show required section in the menu

4 Menu Elements to drag into the coding panel

5 Action buttons Options to return to the script selection window; run script in the
simulator; or compile code for transfer to the micro:bit

6 Simulator Simulator for testing scripts

7 Slider Choose how the script is presented – far left for drag-and-drop,
far right for pure JavaScript text

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We're going to write a very simple script, which will make an LED on the micro:bit
flash on and off. The instructions will give a brief explanation of what's going on, but
if you're a beginner don't worry about what's going on – just follow along for now.

Our script will make one of the LEDs on the micro:bit flash on and off. It'll start flashing
when we turn the micro:bit on, and keep flashing until we turn it back off again.

To turn this into code in the CK editor:

• Select the Language menu by clicking on the icon

• Find the block and drag it inside the onStart() function

• Click on the and select

At this point your script should look like this:

The onStart() function is called when the micro:bit is turned on.

The while (test) block is a control statement which loops so long as the test
evaluates to true; a while (true) test is a common way of creating a loop that will
repeat forever (at least, until the micro:bit is turned off again).

We now have a block of code that will start when the micro:bit is turned on and then loop
until it's turned off again – so now we just need to write the code to turn an LED on and off
again.

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• Select the BBC micro:bit menu by clicking on the icon

• Drag out a block and drop it inside the while loop

• Click on x, then type 2 in the pop-up dialog; do the same with y

• Drag out a block and drop it inside the while loop under the LED-on

• Set the (x,y) co-ordinates to (2,2) again

You can try running the code on the simulator – just click on the RUN button. You'll see the
middle LED comes on … and then stays on. This is because although the LED is turning on
and off, but much faster than we can see. So we need to slow things down a little …

• Select the Language menu (that's the icon)

• Drag out a block and drop it below the LED-on block

• Drag out a second wait block and drop it below the LED-off block

• Choose how quickly you want the LED to blink on and off, and set the two
milliseconds – remember that one second is 1,000 milliseconds!

Your finished script should look something like this:

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

Flashing the micro:bit

Obviously you can run the script in the simulator again, but wouldn’t you much rather see it
running on the micro:bit instead?

The way to do this is pretty simple:

• Click on the COMPILE button

• A .hex file will be downloaded and then a Success! banner will appear

• Connect the the micro:bit to your computer using a USB cable; it will show up as an
external drive

• Copy the .hex file to the micro:bit drive – it's probably easiest to drag and drop in
your file browser

• The yellow status light on the back of the micro:bit will flash to indicate the file is
being copied, and then the micro:bit will restart

• Your LED should now be flashing!

Depending on your computer, you may see a message about the micro:bit not having
been removed properly – don't worry about it …

Congratulations, you've just written your first script for the micro:bit and successfully
transferred it to the device!

The hidden JavaScript

To finish up our quick survey of the Code Kingdoms editor, let's take a look at the slider at
the bottom of the screen. There are four possible settings:

• With the slider in the far left-hand position, we get a full drag-and-drop interface
with visual cues (the light-bulbs in the LED-on and LED-off scripts, for instance);

• The second position keeps the drag-and-drop interactions and the block-style
design, but drops the additional visual cues;

• The third position again keeps the drag-and-drop interactions but reduces the
content to 'pure' JavaScript code – the visual cues and the colored blocks are gone;

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Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

• In the fourth and final position, we have pure JavaScript in a text editor. The menu
pane still has the code-blocks that we're seen but instead of drag-and-drop, clicking
on a block inserts that code in the text editor at the current cursor position

This demonstrates the genius of the CK editor – even if you’re working in the full graphical
interface, you're actually writing JavaScript code under the hood! As an example, here's
how our script to blink the LED looks in the full text editor:

JavaScript is a very widely-used scripting language, and is a fundamental part of the

technologies powering the internet. Although the micro:bit has a limited implementation of
JavaScript, the Code Kingdoms editor is a great way to learn the basics of coding in this
very popular language.

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Continuing with JavaScript

It's beyond the scope of this book to go into more detail on learning to code in
general, or the specifics of any language in particular. Instead after each section you
will be presented with other resources (including books, videos and websites) if you
want to go into more depth.

JavaScript on the micro:bit

• The ideal starting place are the interactive tutorials from Code Kingdoms; these can
be accessed from within the CK editor by clicking on the icon, which will bring
up the Choose a Tutorial menu

• A cookbook of the tutorials is also available for download, together with a cheat
sheet. They can both be found at microbit.co.uk/ck

JavaScript 'at large'

• To learn more about JavaScript 'at large' a good place to start is Codecademy's
JavaScript course, which can be found at codecademy.com/learn/javascript.
Although there is a paid Pro option, the free elements of the course are more than
enough to get a grounding in JavaScript

• Eloquent JavaScript (eloquentjavacsript.net) is an excellent resource once you've

learnt the basics of the language

• Once you've got an understanding of the language, codewars (codewars.com) is

very useful, providing bite-size challenges to exercise your coding-fu

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Block Editor from Microsoft

We'll take a look at Block Editor and Touch Develop separately, but note that – in the
same way that the CK editor presents different ways of coding in JavaScript – Block
Editor is a drag-and-drop interface hiding Touch Develop code underneath.

Block Editor

We'll take a quick look at the Block Editor by re-creating our blinking LED script. From the
web-app home screen, click on Create Code and pick the Block Editor option.

5 1

7 8

3 4

1 Script name The editor will provide a temporary name – feel free to change it!

2 Coding panel Drag-and-drop your blocks here to build your code

3 Menu sidebar Bring up the relevant menu

4 Menu Elements to drag into the coding panel; click in the sidebar to
show, click again to hide

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5 Action buttons Options to return to the script selection window; run script in the
simulator; compile code for transfer to the micro:bit; convert code
to Touch Develop; or open the help

6 Simulator Simulator for testing scripts

7 Save status Status indicator – a icon shows there are unsaved changes,
whilst a shows that the script has been saved (auto-saves
every few seconds)

8 Bug monitor Summary of any problems with your script

Quick Block Editor Script

To give a quick indication of how the Block Editor works, we'll re-write our flashing LED
script.

• Click on Basic in the sidebar and drag out a forever block into the coding panel

• Click on LED in the sidebar and drag out a plot and an unplot block into the coding
panel; move them so that they're inside the forever block

• For both the plot and an unplot blocks, set x, y to 2, 2

• Click on Basic again and drag out two pause (ms) blocks – drop one under the plot
block and the other under the unplot block

• Change the pause periods how you want – remember, they're in milliseconds …

Your script should now look something like:

• Click on run in the actions menu to see how this looks in the simulator

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Copy your script to the micro:bit

Copying the script to the micro:bit is essentially the same as it was for the CK editor:

• Click on the compile button to download your script as a .hex file

• Connect the the micro:bit to your computer using a USB cable; it will show up as an
external drive

• Copy the .hex file to the micro:bit drive

• The yellow status light on the back of the micro:bit will flash to indicate the file is
being copied, and then the micro:bit will restart

• Your LED should now be flashing!

Converting your script to Touch Develop

Microsoft provide a handy way to see how your code looks in Touch Develop – just click on
convert. This will bring up a pop-up showing how your script looks if written in Touch
Develop, and an option to convert it - doing so saves it as a Touch Develop script, but the
original Block Editor script will not be deleted.

The Touch Develop code generated from my example looks like this:

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Continuing with Block Editor

On the micro:bit website

• There's an introductory book, Learning to program with Microsoft Block Editor,

available on the microbit website – go to microbit.co.uk/blocks/book. Unfortunately
at the time of writing this isn't available as a download – you'll just have to read it
online …

• There are also a number of lessons for all levels, from Beginner to Advanced, on the
website at microbit.co.uk/blocks/lessons. These are written in the form of lesson
plans, so if you want to jump straight to the instructions look in the Quick Links
section of the lesson for the activity link.

• And finally there's comprehensive documentation for Block Editor, which can be
accessed direct from the editor by hitting the help icon. It's also available at
microbit.co.uk/blocks/contents

Elsewhere

• Element14 (who were involved in the manufacture of the micro:bit) have an excellent
short course 10 BBC micro:bit Projects in 10 Days which is focussed on the Block
Editor

• Chris Harvey, from the ICT department at St Olave's school in York, has made a
series of videos about the micro:bit available on YouTube. Although he concentrates
on JavaScript later in the series, the first three videos introduce the Block Editor –
you can find them here

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Touch Develop from Microsoft

The Touch Develop interface

If you followed along with the Block Editor section, you may have already converted the
Block Editor version of our blinking LED script into a Touch Develop version. However now
we're going to write it from scratch – so go back to the web app, click on Create Code and
select Touch Develop from the list of editors.

3 5

1 Coding panel Where you interact with the editor to write your code

2 Actions panel Options to return to the script selection window; run your script in
the simulator; compile your script; and (where relevant) undo the
last edit

3 Search bar Search your code

4 Menu (script) Splits the coding panel in two and shows a menu in the right-
hand side

5 Simulator Simulator for testing scripts

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The Touch Develop interface has been developed to be touch-friendly so that it works
well on mobile devices.

Unlike either the CK editor or Block Editor, in Touch Develop the code command blocks
aren't visible until you touch (or click) the screen. If we click inside the main () function, the
screen will change to bring up the code blocks:

Most of these options are familiar from the sidebar in Block Editor; clicking on one shows
the available commands.

A quick Touch Develop script

To get a feel for Touch Develop, we'll quickly recreate our flashing LEDs script:

• Click on the grey line that says add code here to bring up the code menu

• Click on led and then choose plot from the list that appears

• In the coding panel the cursor will be flashing in front of the first 0 – click and then
type 2, then click on move cursor and type 2 again

• Click anywhere outside of the function to finishing editing

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• The finished command should be led ➞ plot(2, 2)

You should now see large symbols above and below your line of code (if not, click on
the first line again) – clicking on one of these adds a new line of code above or below the
highlighted line of code.

• Click on the below you plot command to create a new row

• Click on basic and then pause, then choose a time (in milliseconds) to wait

• Click on the below your pause, and add an unplot command (in the basic
menu) for co-ordinate (2,2)

• Add another pause command below the unplot command

Your finished code should look a little like this

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Continuing with Touch Develop

On the micro:bit website

• There's a short introduction at microbit.co.uk/td/editor together with a video at

microbit.co.uk/getting-started/touchdevelop-editor

• There are lessons for all levels, from Beginner to Advanced, on the website at
microbit.co.uk/td/lessons. As with the Block Editor, these are written in the form of
lesson plans, so if you want to jump straight to the instructions look in the Quick
Links section of the lesson for the activity link.

Note that some of the lessons are repeats of those from the Block Editor, although
obviously re-written to suit the Touch Develop interface.

• If you've started with Block Editor and are moving across to Touch Develop, there's
a From Block Editor To Touch Develop guide at microbit.co.uk/blocks/to-td

• And finally there's comprehensive documentation for Touch Develop, which can be
accessed direct from the editor by hitting the help icon. It's also available at
microbit.co.uk/td/contents

Elsewhere

There's a huge amount of content on Microsoft's Touch Develop website, including:

• A brief introduction at touchdevelop.com/microbit;

• A getting-started guide at touchdevelop.com/docs/getting-started;

• Tutorials at touchdevelop.com/docs/tutorials;

• And a full set of documentation at https://www.touchdevelop.com/docs, including a

language and API references

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MicroPython from The Python Software Foundation

The MicroPython interface

The last of the editors on the micro:bit website is MicroPython. Start a new script from the
web app by clicking on Create Code and select MicroPython.

3 1 4

1 Script name The editor will provide a temporary name – feel free to change it!

2 Coding panel Where you interact with the editor to write your code

3 Actions panel Options to return to the script selection window; download a

compiled .hex file; access snippets; open help; zoom in or out; see
save status; and see bug status

4 Instructions Instructions for running your script on the micro:bit

With MicroPython, we're moving into the realm of a 'traditional' code editor – it's text-
based and doesn't even have a simulator for testing code. To see if your code is working,
you will actually need to flash your script to the micro:bit and try it out for real!

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MicroPython does offer some help – if there's an error in your code, a message will
scroll across your micro:bit telling you the first line that is a problem together with
some information about the type of error.

Two quick scripts

As you can see, when starting a new script you're provided with some default code:

• The statement from microbit import * (which you will probably want to leave
at the top of any script you write) imports all the library code from the microbit
module – essentially, this gives you the commands that you need to easily access
the micro:bit

Even without any specific knowledge of the Python / MicroPython language, we can make
a pretty good guess what the rest of the code does:

• The rest of the script is inside a while True: loop – so it'll start looping when the
micro:bit is turned on, and continue until it's turned off again

• display.scroll("Hello, World") looks like it'll scroll the text "Hello, World"
across the micro:bit's display …

• and display.show(Image.HEART) looks like it's going to show a heart image …

• and finally, sleep(2000) is going to pause the script for 2000 milliseconds (or 2
seconds!)

As another example, here's our blinking LED script written in MicroPython:

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We've seen the while True: and pause() commands already in the sample script, but in
line 5 we have a new command: display.set_pixel(2,2,9)

• most likely display.set_pixel() is going to turn a pixel on …

• and we can be fairly cofident that the 2,2 refers to the co-ordinate of the pixel that
we're turning on …

• but what about that 9 at the end? And come to that, what about the 0 in the
instruction on line 7?

A look at the BBC micro:bit MicroPython documentation (which you can access by clicking
on Help in the editor or visiting microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/latest/) shows
that the third digit in the set_pixel command is for the brightness of the pixel, with 9 being
fully lit and 0 being off – so in MicroPython set_pixel is used to turn pixels both on and
off.

We're going to need a bigger boat

This simple script illustrates a key point about MicroPython – it's a powerful language (and
can leverage a lot of the power of 'full-fat' Python as well), but alongside that power comes
increased complexity. If you're learning MicroPython, you're probably going to need to read
the documentation until you're more experienced!

A different editor

If you're thinking of using MicroPython, it's worth considering downloading an editor rather
than working in the web-app. There are several options available, but at the moment the
best option for working with micro:bit appears to be Mu, available free from codewith.mu.
This offers the ability to:

• flash your scripts with one click – no need to download and then copy

• access to the micro:bit's file system

• access the micro:bit REPL (read-eval-print-loop) – essentially an interactive Python

terminal, running on the micro:bit

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Continuing with MicroPython

Unlike the other editors, there is very little documentation for MicroPython on the microbit
site. However there are plenty of resources:

• First Steps with Python, at microbit.pythonanywhere.com/help.html

• There is excellent documentation for BBC micro:bit MicroPython, at microbit-

micropython.readthedocs.io including a series of tutorials and a complete set of
reference documents

• Since MicroPython is a refinement of Python, intended specifically for low-power

boards like the micro:bit, it's also worth visiting the site for the Python Software
Foundation – try python.org/community/microbit/

• There's an excellent set of videos by Tony DiCola from Adafruit, available at their
YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/adafruit/playlists (look for the MicroPython
playlist)

• And to go with those videos there are a series of written tutorials – look at the
learning portal at Adafruit (learn.adafruit.com/) and search for micropython

Although the Adafruit videos and tutorials are very good, they're primarily aimed at
their own 'Feather Huzzah ESP8826' board. The principles are the same, but some of
the code may be different – for instance the ESP8266 needs a module called machine
whilst the micro:bit uses the microbit module.

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Going mobile
One of the original promises of the micro:bit was that it would be possible to code on, and
transfer that code to the micro:bit from, a mobile phone. To their credit, this does work,
albeit with a some caveats.

Get connected

The first thing you're going to need is an app on your mobile device. Head to your app store
and download the micro:bit app.

Next, you need to pair the micro:bit over Bluetooth:

• In the micro:bit app on your mobile device, tap on Connect

• On the micro:bit, press and hold both the A and B buttons; then still holding these
buttons, press and then release the Reset button

• If successful, the text PAIRING will scroll across the micro:bit screen and then an
image will be shown (which identifies the micro:bit)

• Back on your mobile device, you will see a recreation of the micro:bit's LED display –
replicate the image from your micro:bit and tap Next

• Back on the micro:bit you'll see an arrow pointing to the A button; press this and a
six-digit pass code will be shown

• Enter the pass code on your mobile device

• and you're connected

This is where we hit a couple of those caveats:

• Whenever you plug your micro:bit into USB you will need to repeat the whole
pairing process to use Bluetooth again; and

• If you've used MicroPython, pairing may not even start on the micro:bit

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You may find that holding A+B and then pushing reset doesn't have any effect. If so,
connect the micro:bit to a computer over USB and flash any script from the web app
so long as it's not MicroPython. Try again, it should work fine.

Mobile coding

Whether you're paired or not, you can code from your mobile device by tapping on Create
Code in the app. Rather than open an editor within the app, this will instead open your
mobile device's browser and run the web-app.

Because your scripts are associated with your browser, any scripts you've written on
your computer won't be on your mobile device, and any scripts you write on the
mobile device won't appear on your computer.

The exception is if you're able to sign in which, as we saw in Getting up and running,
is currently only available to teachers at registered schools.

This is where Touch Develop starts to really shine as an editor – both CK Editor and Block
Editor work on a touch-screen device, but Touch Develop works better, particularly on a
device with a smaller screen. Try writing our flashing LED script in each of the three editors
on your mobile device – odds are good that it'll be a more pleasant experience in Touch
Develop.

Don't try to use MicroPython – remember, it'll probably break your bluetooth pairing!

Once you're ready to flash your micro:bit (and are connected via bluetooth), tap on Compile
in the editor on your mobile device. You'll see the normal download message appear, and
then should see a screen asking you what action you want to take with the file – tap on
Open in micro:bit and the file will be flashed to your micro:bit.

There is also a Flash option in the mobile app menu – this will give you a choice of
flashing the most recent script you used, or choosing from a list of your scripts. I've
had mixed success – it seems to default to opening the CK Editor for some reason.

And that's all there is to coding your micro:bit using a mobile device!

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Electronics projects
It's beyond the scope of this getting started guide, but those 5 large pins (and the 20 small
ones in the edge connector!) are ideal for getting started with electronics. If this interests
you, there are some great resources out there.

Block Editor

• Hack your headphones - microbit.co.uk/blocks/lessons/hack-your-headphones

• Banana keyboard - microbit.co.uk/blocks/lessons/banana-keyboard

Touch Develop

• Hack your headphones - microbit.co.uk/td/lessons/hack-your-headphones

• Banana keyboard - microbit.co.uk/td/lessons/banana-keyboard

MicroPython

• Several of the tutorials at microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/ give examples of

dealing with electronics – for instance Input/Output, Music and Speech sections

• Adafruit's MicroPython tutorial videos (youtube.com/user/adafruit/playlists) include

some simple examples …

• And again, there are written tutorials to accompany the videos on their learning
portal (learn.adafruit.com/)

If you're interested in doing more with electronics, take a look at the range of accessories
(including dock connectors, a breakout board and an inventors kit) by Kitronic, available
from Pimoroni.

© Dominic Wakeling 2016 Page 28 www.domwakeling.com

Getting started with the BBC micro:bit

Glossary
Compiler – a piece of software running on your computer which takes your script and
converts it into a file of hexadecimal machine-code that the micro:bit can understand

Flash – when a compiled file is transferred to the micro:bit, it re-writes the flash memory
on the device (so the code is still there once the power has been turned off and on again).
This is also called flashing the device.

Interpreter – a piece of software (in this case running on the micro:bit) which takes your
script and interprets it into machine-code instructions that the micro:bit can understand.
The MicroPython REPL is an interpreter.

Making – a subculture interested in DIY as it relates to electronics, 3D printing, robotics

and the like. Take a look at Make: magazine (makezine.com) and Maker Faires
(makerfaire.com)

Microcontroller Board – an electronics board containing a microcontroller – essentially a

small computer containing a processor, memory and input/output, all integrated into a
single circuit (and known as a System on Chip or SoC ). These are very popular, particularly
in Making and electronics.

MicroPython REPL – a read-evaluate-print-loop, essentially a MicroPython console

running on the micro:bit, available through USB, provided by an Interpreter on the micro:bit.
Because it's interpreted, any code you run in the REPL will be slower than if you compile it
– but it's much quicker to change code through the interpreter than a compiler, making this
a better choice when testing out ideas.

© Dominic Wakeling 2016 Page 29 www.domwakeling.com