Between the Arduino & Raspberry, it looks like horses for courses.
Raspery seems to lean toward media applications while the Arduino is a sort
of open source embedded micro platform.
It depends on what you want. The Pi was actually created to be a "play
space" for learning to program. Like the COmmodore 64 of 30 years ago, or
even my KIM-1 that I got in 1979. But the Pi is way better, and way
cheaper. It allows for play since nobody is worrying about messing up the
hard drive.
And yes, Linux is overkill, but the cheap hardware runs it. And you can
get all kinds of resources for programming and debugging on Linux. LIkely
any programming language exists for Linux.
When I got the KIM-1, I'd try single instructions, the monitor made it
easy to do so, see the results, see how the registers looked after the
instruction. A much more concrete learning process than reading a book.
Then I'd string some instructions together, again that was easy to try
since I could get the monitor to take over when the code was finished. No
need to fuss with how to display things (which with GUI programs has a lot
of overhead), you can deal with that later when you get to that point.
And it had some limited I/O, so I could play with turning LEDs on and off,
or controlling that GI sound generator IC. It was a whole process, not a
project. I was learning, not trying to make something.
"Leaning a new operating system" isn't a hardship for kids, it's exactly
what they want. It's no different from when I got a ham license when I
was 12, I never did much deliberate study for it, I was soaking up all I
could read about electronics and radio. The license was no barrier, not
just in terms of it being easy to pass (when the Canadian license was not
a beginner's license) but that it was just part of the process.
I went through all the books on "electronics" at the children's library
when I was ten, in quotes since most were really books about electricity.
And then I started work on the books in the adult library. When I found
the hobby electronic magazines when I was 11, I couldn't understand them,
but I stuck with them, and because I was interested, I learned from them.
The first few projects didn't work (in retrospect I can see lots of
reasons, but at the time I wasn't yet skilled enough) but ironically the
first things I built that did work were made from parts I'd pulled of
scrap electronics. I had gained enough knowledge to see what was needed,
and what would work.
When I got the KIM-1, not until 1979 because I couldn't afford a computer
before that, I used the seme process of learning through experience. I
didn't read a book ahead of time, I read them in parallel.
Adults seem to forget that. If someone is interested, they'll learn.
Michael
