New website launched!

10 June 2019

You're now looking at my new and improved website design. After five years, I've retired the fixed width purple design, shown on the right. Over the years I'd become fond of it, but much of the content was hard to find, and using it on mobile devices involved a fair amount of pinching and zooming.

With the new design, I've introduced a (long overdue) responsive design that offers a much smoother experience on desktops, mobile phones and tablet devices. The vertical navigation bar enables me to provide links to all of the major sections on the site, including adding direct links to the games and free downloads again. The new navbar is easier to extend when I add new sections, too.

I've also taken the opportunity to use more and bigger images on the site, including using stock images for the first time to bring some visual relief to a page. In the past, I've tended to avoid images unless they were communicating information, because of the time they take to download. That's much less of an issue now that most people who visit this site are using faster web connections. I've still tried to make the site as fast as possible, both by being selective with images and by making other speed optimisations on the site.

While I've been working on the site, I have updated some articles and removed some pages. I have preserved archive articles that may be of interest to someone in the future, but I have removed anything that's obviously broken or obsolete. It's unlikely you'll notice what's missing but if you do and you want a copy, get in touch and I'll see if I can help. My Amstrad CPC pages are still here, and so are most of my articles.

I have lots of ideas for ways I can expand this website and make it easier to find the best content on it, so I'll continue to update it over the coming months. In the meantime, if you have any feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below or email me.

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Learn to Code with the new issue of The MagPi

07 June 2019

The new issue of The MagPi (issue 82) includes three coding tutorials I wrote for the cover feature, Learn to Code. The article guides you through projects that get you started with Scratch, Python, and GPIO Zero for electronics on the Raspberry Pi.

UPDATE 2020: You can now download this article here.

The projects are:

• Catchy Catchy Feedy Monkey - a simple game to get you started with Scratch 2. You trigger the cat to throw bananas to the hungry monkey as it moves up and down the screen. I wanted to include broadcasts, to demonstrate one of the distinctive features of Scratch, so a broadcast is used to start the bananas flying and make the monkey say something when you launch them. Learn more about how Scratch broadcasts work here. There's lots you can do to extend this simple game demo, including adding a score, sound effects, and changing difficulty levels.

• Missing vowels - this is a Python version of the missing vowels round on TV quiz show Only Connect. I wanted to give a taste of what's distinctive about Python when compared to Scratch (rather than doing another graphical game), so that led me naturally to look at data handling. The project uses a list of phrases and a loop to strip the vowels out. You can extend this game by making it ask you multiple questions (at the moment it's just one question per program run), and maybe even extra rounds.

• Simple Brian (pictured) - this pattern repeating game might feel familiar from your childhood! There are four lights and four buttons and you have to repeat the sequence of lights, which gets longer with each correct guess. This project starts by showing you how to build a torch by connecting a light and a button to your Raspberry Pi, and controlling it from Python using GPIO Zero. You then add three more LEDs and buttons to build the game. The project introduces the idea of functions in Python, shows how a list can be used to store not just words (and numbers) but also light and button objects from GPIO Zero, and walks you through the game logic. Note that the circuit diagrams in the print edition of the magazine have errors in them and so you should instead consult the corrected images provided here, or refer to the digital edition of the magazine which has been updated. For a Scratch implementation of this game, incidentally, check out Gribbet! from my book Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps.

The projects have been written to enable you to build in small chunks and test frequently, so you're not waiting until the end to see any results. They're progressive too: ideas introduced in each tutorial are built on in the next one. The projects also include pointers to back issues of the MagPi that you can use to take your next steps in coding. You can also download free sample chapters from my books Mission Python, Cool Scratch Projects in Easy Steps and Raspberry Pi For Dummies.

I hope these projects provide an entry point for new coders, and inspiration for others who are looking for new projects to tinker with.

The MagPi is available to download for free, but you can support the educational mission of The Raspberry Pi Foundation by buying a copy in your local newsagent, or subscribing. Get the mag here!

Permanent link for this post | Blog Home | Website Home | Email feedback

Dip into the blog archive

June 2005 | September 2005 | January 2006 | March 2006 | April 2006 | May 2006 | June 2006 | July 2006 | August 2006 | September 2006 | October 2006 | November 2006 | December 2006 | February 2007 | March 2007 | April 2007 | May 2007 | June 2007 | July 2007 | August 2007 | September 2007 | October 2007 | November 2007 | December 2007 | January 2008 | February 2008 | March 2008 | April 2008 | May 2008 | June 2008 | July 2008 | August 2008 | September 2008 | October 2008 | November 2008 | December 2008 | January 2009 | February 2009 | March 2009 | April 2009 | May 2009 | June 2009 | July 2009 | August 2009 | September 2009 | October 2009 | November 2009 | December 2009 | January 2010 | February 2010 | March 2010 | April 2010 | May 2010 | June 2010 | August 2010 | September 2010 | October 2010 | November 2010 | December 2010 | March 2011 | April 2011 | May 2011 | June 2011 | July 2011 | August 2011 | September 2011 | October 2011 | November 2011 | December 2011 | January 2012 | February 2012 | March 2012 | June 2012 | July 2012 | August 2012 | September 2012 | October 2012 | December 2012 | January 2013 | February 2013 | March 2013 | April 2013 | June 2013 | July 2013 | August 2013 | September 2013 | October 2013 | November 2013 | December 2013 | January 2014 | February 2014 | March 2014 | April 2014 | May 2014 | June 2014 | July 2014 | August 2014 | September 2014 | October 2014 | November 2014 | December 2014 | January 2015 | February 2015 | March 2015 | April 2015 | May 2015 | June 2015 | September 2015 | October 2015 | December 2015 | January 2016 | February 2016 | March 2016 | May 2016 | July 2016 | August 2016 | September 2016 | October 2016 | November 2016 | December 2016 | January 2017 | July 2017 | August 2017 | October 2017 | November 2017 | January 2018 | February 2018 | August 2018 | October 2018 | November 2018 | December 2018 | January 2019 | March 2019 | June 2019 | August 2019 | September 2019 | October 2019 | January 2020 | February 2020 | March 2020 | April 2020 | May 2020 | June 2020 | September 2020 | October 2020 | December 2020 | January 2021 | February 2021 | May 2021 | June 2021 | October 2021 | November 2021 | December 2021 | January 2022 | February 2022 | March 2022 | May 2022 | July 2022 | August 2022 | September 2022 | December 2022 | March 2023 | April 2023 | May 2023 | June 2023 | October 2023 | November 2023 | January 2024 | February 2024 | May 2024 | June 2024 | July 2024 | September 2024 | October 2024 | November 2024 | December 2024 | Top of this page |