Apologies for the animosity from this "community".

Best of luck for your future Josh, I can't imagine what it would be like to have such technical experience and insight at such a young age.

The contrarian dynamic strikes again: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu.... Threads often get an initial wave of negative comments, followed by a second wave of objections to the objections. What determines the initial wave of comments is not community opinion—rather, it's what's the easiest thing to make reflexive objections to. Those comments are the first to show up because those reflexive reactions take the least time. Thoughtful comments require reflection, which is much slower (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).

By now the thread is decisively positive. That's because other readers see those reflexive reactions, have a WTF reaction themselves, and show up to express the opposing point of view. Perhaps ironically, that double negative ends up being much more positive, and those comments tend to end up the more highly upvoted.

Your comments about the dynamics of HN are always fascinating.

I understand where the people in the comments are coming from. Some just don't express their thoughts in a kind way.

I agree, but you don't say to drug addicts "it's easy just stop taking drugs" because ultimately they will still reach for their fix. It's a personal decision, but the tools to self-manage need to be available.

Apple could do more to alleviate addictions, however. You could argue that they first introduced these addictions in the first place. Red circles in the corners of apps have become a corner stone in computer interaction. "Do not disturb" and "Notifications" go someway to manage and alleviate this, but ultimately it's not in Apple's interest to provide mechanisms for users to escape their platform.

If apps don't see engagement, developers won't make apps, which means Apple loses money.

If users aren't bullied into updating their devices, the large majority won't update, which means Apple loses control of their platform.

I hope Apple take a stand against this established model. It's gone far enough and it's extremely mentally wearing.

There is actually a C/C++ layer that supports the higher level languages known as the micro:bit runtime[0], which means you can also program the device using C/C++... Another level of progression for children.

[0] https://lancaster-university.github.io/microbit-docs/

Nice, thanks for the link! I didn't realize there was a web-based C++ IDE targeting the micro:bit.

Yes, the runtime is actually built on ARM's mbed, which means their online IDE can also build micro:bit programs :)

Another great markdown->slides project is madoko https://www.madoko.net/ . Also really good for writing markdown based latex papers.

The text is overflowing the margins on pages 13 - 15 in the sample [1] linked to from the madoko site.

[1] http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/um/people/daan/madoko/sa...

Why does the fact it can't run micropython and BLE at the same time put BLE out of reach?

The point is you want to be able to program on the board rather than having it be useless without attaching it to a PC. For that you need both IO and an onboard compiler or interpreter.

MicroPython is right out; it would almost fit Lua, but as it is it looks like your only option for independent development would be Forth.

You can flash it over Bluetooth?

No. The point is being able to do development live without needing to upload a new image every time you want to try something new.