MakeCode Maker

This is an experimental code editor for maker boards - try it at https://maker.makecode.com.

Read the docs

Who is this for?

This editor is meant for micro-controllers that are friendly to breadboarding. The editor is based on Microsoft MakeCode.

Local Dev Server

The local server lets you to run the editor and serve the documentation from your own computer.

Setup

Install Node.js 8.9.4 or higher.
Install Docker if you are going to edit any .cpp files.
Clone the pxt repository.

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/pxt
cd pxt

Install the dependencies of Microsoft/pxt and build it

npm install
npm run build
cd ..

Clone the Microsoft/pxt-common-packages repository

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/pxt-common-packages
cd pxt-common-packages
npm install
cd ..

Clone the Microsoft/pxt-maker repository

git clone https://github.com/microsoft/pxt-maker
cd pxt-maker

Install the PXT command line (add sudo for Mac/Linux shells).

npm install -g pxt

Install the pxt-maker dependencies.

npm install

Link pxt-maker back to base pxt repo (add sudo for Mac/Linux shells).

rm -Rf node_modules/pxt-core
rm -Rf node_modules/pxt-common-packages
pxt link ../pxt
pxt link ../pxt-common-packages

If you want to know if your folders are link, run ls -l and it will indicate them.

ls -l node_modules/

Note the above command assumes the folder structure of

       maker.makecode.com
          |
  ----------------------------------
  |       |                        |
 pxt      pxt-common-packages  pxt-maker

Refresh dal.d.ts files

Whenever you make changes to the #defines in the .cpp files, you will have to refresh the dal.d.ts files. For that, run

pxt builddaldts

CODAL changes

If you need to do changes to CODAL itself, follow these steps.

create a new project in the web editor, then close the web server. Select the hardware you want to work with.
using a command prompt, open the projects folder and find the subfolder with your new project
open the folder in Visual Studio Code

code .

open pxt.json and edit the dependencies to use the file:... path instead of *

   dependencies: {
        "adafruit-metro-m0-express": "file:../../libs/adafruit-metro-m0-express"
   }

from the command line, set the PXT_NODOCKER environment variable to 1

export PXT_NODOCKER=1

run a local build that will create a CODAL checkout automatically. If you are missing tools, you will be notified by the build script.

pxt build --local --force

go to the built/dockercodal folder and open all CODAL in a new Visual Studio Code instance

cd built/dockercodal
code libraries/*

go to the Git tab in VS Code, and change the branch of the CODAL repository to work on to master. You can create a new branch to start doing your work and pull requests.
to build CODAL directly, run built/codal

python build.py

to rebuild your project from pxt, run pxt build --local --force from the project folder

Running

Run this command from inside pxt-maker to open a local web server

pxt serve

If the local server opens in the wrong browser, make sure to copy the URL containing the local token. Otherwise, the editor will not be able to load the projects.

If you need to modify the .cpp files (and have installed yotta), enable yotta compilation using the --localbuild flag:

pxt serve --localbuild

Updates

Make sure to pull changes from all repos regularly. More instructions are at https://github.com/microsoft/pxt#running-a-target-from-localhost

Repos

The pxt-maker target depends on several other repos. The main ones are:

https://github.com/microsoft/pxt, the PXT framework
https://github.com/microsoft/pxt-commmon-packages, common APIs accross various MakeCode editors
https://github.com/lancaster-university/codal-core, CODAL core project
https://github.com/lancaster-university/codal-mbed, mbed layer
https://github.com/lancaster-university/codal-samd21, CODAL SAMD21 layer
https://github.com/lancaster-university/codal-circuit-playground, Adafruit CPX layer

Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.