ChromeOS / chromebooks

[genevieve]

I wondered if the crumble will work (in the future) with ChromeOS. Specifically to work with chromebooks in a classroom environment?

[Simon]

Good news first
I’m planning on getting Scratch to control a Crumble

Bad News
Even though Scratch 2 works very well on Chromebooks – existing hardware extensions for things like Lego WeDo don’t (according to Google – I have no Chromebook)

So unfortunately, its going to be very tricky (never say never) to get this to work

Simon

[Joseph]

The Crumble software is written in python, so unfortunately, porting it to ChromeOS looks like a lot of work. Recently, Google have announced a way of running Android apps on ChromeOS, so that might ease things a little, but I haven’t looked into it yet.

Using Scratch could be interesting. I’m assuming it’s running in the cloud? I wonder if a little ChromeOS app could enable communication from Scratch. Although, the Crumble would only work when connected to the Chromebook, so depending on your application, it might not be ideal.

Joseph

[nickmit]

I wondered if there had been any progress on this. It would be great to use Crumble with Chromebooks. Any developments?

Nick

[Daniel]

Hi nickmit,

Apologies for not getting back sooner.

I agree, it definitely would be great to use the Crumble on a Chromebook. Regarding the software, it is more likely to be later in 2018 rather than earlier.

As previous posts have mentioned, it unfortunately isn’t as simple to run the software on a Chromebook, and as such a completely new development is needed.

I hope this answers your question.

Kind regards,

Dan

[John]

Adding a further vote for a Crumble coding IDE that would work on the cloud, using a Chromebook (or anything else with a sensible browser) as interface to the Crumble.

I’d like to replace an ageing population of Windows PCs and iPads at my primary school with Chromebooks, and we’re currently reviewing what resources we’d have to stop using (and find substitutes for) if we did this.

John

[bluecoatstrode]

Hi,

Is there any news on making Crumble work on a Chromebook? or a Scratch extension? I have lots of Chromebooks at my school, but only teachers’ desktops left for Crumble. Also, is there likely to be a function to create or define new blocks?

Thanks

James

[John]

It’s getting to “late 2018” now. Any news?

[Daniel]

Hi all,

Development of the software is underway – it is a mammoth task, but it is gradually moving along. As mentioned previously, we initially had hoped that we could port the software, and tweak it, but unfortunately we are having to write it from scratch.

We have had suggestions of function/procedure blocks in the past (including myself) – this is something we will consider, but is unlikely to happen whilst the development of the Chromebook software is underway.

Regards,

Dan

[John]

I realise Redfern is a SME, so there must be limits on the pace of any in-house development – in a market where the competition may be able to move faster.

Have you considered any ways of widening software development capacity, perhaps by involving effort (maybe not fully commercially paid) from the Crumble user community of teachers/students? …or by opening the source of the Crumble s/w and interface to third parties (or anyone)?

John

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