Will there be a makecode for spike prime? I would love to get a spike prime set to start playing with when available but not a fan of scratch.
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I do agree. EV3 type of browser based MakeCode is much better than the restricted special application from LEGO Education. There are some features in the SPIKE application that I like, such as editing sound resources. To make either EV3 or Spike Prime easy to use by the pupils, a library is required. The MakeCode custom.ts is a reasonable start.
Browser-based (no installation) and no account/login required are two reasons I would like to have MakeCode for SPIKE Prime. We love using it for micro:bit and Arcade already. LEGO recently announced the retirement of EV3, so I’m eager to learn if Makecode may be an option for SPIKE Prime.
The browser based solution has its benefits, but we have very little leverage to convince MS to maintain Makecode for LEGO robotics. Now, when the sale of EV3 will stop in few months there is no reason to invest on that branch. The Spike Prime is intended for education usage and the built-in training material is included in the LEGO software.
That means, that MS should invest in supporting LEGO Robot Inventor 51515. LEGO MS RI tool has its scratch style block programming and Python based text programming. That tool is not as nice as the Makecode, but is still better than the original EV3 development environment.
Hi,
Could the @MakeCode team please elaborate?
Looking for the same answer, but hard to find anything about MakeCode for Spike Prime when searching. Maybe one can assume “no”?
I tried to contact Lego directly about this a long time ago, before they launched their own Blockly/Scratch solution, but they just answered secretively, ambiguously and deflectingly. Not very helpful.
Hey folks! We have no plans to support Spike Prime at this time.
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MakeCode member here. Adding to Richard’s reply, we don’t have plans right now, however we do continuously evaluate where to invest. Our assumption was that existing blockly\python implementation from Lego is good enough for Spike Prime. Can you elaborate what additional things we can bring to the table?
Thanks first to @richard for a clear answer which is easy to relate to!
Then thanks to @abchatra for the follow-up question.
The short TL;DR answer is that by introducing also Spike, would bring to the table support for new educational hardware that is making its way into schools inside your already familiar interface/editors and community, where you go from already being best overall, to even better overall! Maybe you won’t achieve the full depth/functionality of Lego’s own implementation, or other specialized implementations, but you get at least hardware and JavaScript support enough for education. Maybe invite Lego into your existing fold instead, I don’t know.
Diving into the details is not really Spike Prime related(or Raspberry Pi…), but more general about the MakeCode platform and its benefits, as I see it:
-As a parent now engaged in helping my son’s school a little with their ambitions for strengthening programming in the curriculum and among their teacher your main advantage is the recognizable interface with familiarity in the basic functions/blocks and editors spanning several technologies/products(from Arcade to the EV3 etc.), which is very helpful when trying to navigate the chaos of different solutions and to get the not so technology savvy to dare to jump into different products/projects. Especially when many products are based on some flavour of Blockly anyways, but do not interoperate.
-You are sitting on a gold mine with what you have achieved with MakeCode Arcade(especially self motivating for my son and the other kids in the computer club) and Minecraft Education, which is a huge entry gate for the other products that you also support.
-You get a lot for free(gratis), with also the possibility for paid/proprietary packages/editors side-by-side, where you can choose yourself, according to budget, how much to invest, and try out extensively before investing, without being locked in from the start, and even without investing, it is of large educational value.
-It is mostly open source(libre), which spawns a community which enhances your product with great extensions and modifications, and pushes the limits with advanced coding projects(which are also great teaching material), and will then again amplify the growth of the community. It is also a great learning path if you want to study the the more advanced underlying code base and technology, which is mostly also open source.
-You combine blocks with STS and Python
-You make it possible to expand code also inside your editor, with extra files etc.
-Good documentation
-You still support old hardware which the schools already have and struggle to take into use(often takes longer time than the hardware generation), and have no funds regularly buy new equipment
-You have a growing community, like this forum, which makes it easier and easier to get help, and more fun to contribute as a user
-You have great and motivated staff like yourselves, which actually respond on the forum from time to time, and I am under the impression that you love what you do and the community(Lego hardly responded, and that is not unusual, what you are doing is actually unusual. At Google you are lucky if you reach a robot when you need help.).
So while you may not win in depth and e.g. a First Lego League competition using the MakeCode Mindstorms editor(probably not with Lego’s own editors either), you win - in my opinion - in width and with your overall package, and where all editors, as far as I can tell, offer enough functionality/depth to support normal(not all specialized technical courses) coding curriculum well into and above high school level, while at the same time being accessible for the lower levels.
You of course still have a lot of potential for development to be even better. I do not know if Lego Spike would be a good investment for you. (In my personal opinion I would love to see even more interoperability/criss-cross between your different packages for exciting project ideas, like controlling different micro controllers from Minecraft/Arcade and vice versa, between different hardware, Arcade-Minecraft, etc. etc. You are already tapping into this with JacDac, but that requires new hadware investments which are not yet easy/affordable enough to get. But I have no idea of the cost benefit calculations…).
But with more hardware support and interoperability, you bring to the table being just an even better educational platform overall(one-stop shop and familiarity). Lego’s own implementation might still be better regarding full support, Scratch still better on certain parameters etc., but the jump between the different external and specialized systems will always be much bigger in an educational setting, than having enough for fun educational projects with different hardware from within MakeCode.
(But of course you need enough support and functionality to be useful, and not scare the users away and affecting your other editors negatively, meaning bad functionality is probably worse than no support, but you do not have to be best in all disciplines).
Just my 2 cents…
Thank you so much for this wonderful feedback. We will discuss internally. I don’t expect any immediate changes in the plan as we are focused on releasing a few Arcade related changes in the immediate future.
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Hello @MakeCode team,
I’ll be glad as well if you decide to support Spike prime, because your work for EV3 is amazing!
We are using Makecode for Micro:bit and EV3 at school and it has a lot great features.
What I love on Makecode comparing Scratch blocks
- your extendable blocks
they don’t need to change whole block (as with Scratch they have to) just to make a little change e.g.:-
if→if / else→if / else if / else - comparisions & math operators with dropdown selector
- it looks like as a small things but I appreciete these details that speed up and make your life easier
-
- simulator
kids can check basic functionality without loosing time by flashing to the device - debugger & console
great way to learn more about debugging and still no need to use device - instant switching between graphical and text language
- great to show (and learn for children) how the algorithm idea can be visualized with blocks and then implemented in some text language (Javascript or Python in case of Micro:bit)
- so moving to text language is much easier
- this is not possible in official Lego app, you are creating project in blocks or in python
- well and one personal, Javascript is more close to me because of my main profession
teaching at school is more like a hobby
Best regards to you
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Hear, hear, @cronello!!
Major rollouts of Spike models are starting in schools and First Lego League to eventually replace the EV3, so this might be a great opportunity for the @MakeCode team(and a low hanging fruit, if the differences aren’t enormous…).
Given how advanced and omipresent the EV3 is, it is probably a good idea for the greater MakeCode community to keep https://makecode.mindstorms.com alive and kicking some years into the future, with just a little bit technical support(with community contributions) for the worst wrinkles and expected breaking changes in pxt core going forward?