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eLua v0.8 released

Elua_chip_transp_128x128

We are proud to annunce the release of eLua v0.8 (codename "FINALLY! It was about time for a new release" :) ). eLua is an effort to expand the presence of the Lua programming language in the embedded world, especially on microcontroller-based platforms. It is meant to be a complete MCU development environment. It currently runs on a number of ARM variants (including Cortex-M3), AVR32 (and i386 as a proof of concept).

What follows is a list of new features in this release:
  • Added the RFS (Remote File System), a new file system which allows sharing a directory on the PC with the eLua board.
  • Added a serial multiplexer which allows using more virtual serial ports over a single physical UART connection.
  • Added Lua and C interrupt handlers support, see here for more details.
  • Added linenoise support (eLua and Lua shell command line history and navigation, more details here).
  • Added generic I2C support and docs
  • Added hardware flow control and runtime configurable buffers for UARTs.
  • Added support for new boards: mbed, ATEVK1101, Mizar32, EK-LM3S1968
  • Added SPI and SD/MMC support for EVK1100 and EVK1101 (AVR32)
  • Added I2C support for STR-E912 (STR912)
  • Added support for require() and autorun from SD/MMC
  • Added external memory support for STR912
  • Added long filename support for SD/MMC
  • Added RTC (real time clock) platform specific support for str9 (see the documentation of the str9.rtc module).
  • Added support for AsciiDoc in the documentation system
  • Tutorials and new projects added to the eLua Wiki
  • Demo files were moved out of the distro to http://wiki.eluaproject.net/Projects
  • Added a media page with eLua related media on the project site

 

eLua User Labs!

The Embedded Lua project has announced a new sub-site for community members to find and post content about projects they're working on: "We're proud to announce the launch of a new community site: eLua User Labs. This Wiki-based site provides a centralized area where users can share project code, documentation and media. This site also contains official code examples, tutorials, FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and other goodies maintained by project members. Registered users are able to create new pages or make edits to many of the existing pages. We have prepared some initial content, and now welcome the rest of the eLua community to add, explore and refine." We're hoping that this will encourage users who have been working on projects independently to share information about them to help get new users excited, and also to provide a resource to everyone for finding re-usable code for different project types.

eLua 0.6 Released!

It has been a bit of a quiet release so far, but I wanted to mention that eLua 0.6 has just recently been released. Here's a rundown of the major changes in the release:
  • License changed to MIT
  • Web page and documentation completely redesigned
  • Documentation available offline
  • Added support for AVR32 CPUs
  • Added support for STM32 Cortex-M3 CPUs
  • Added ADC module with support for moving average filters
  • Added support for multiple toolchains
  • Added an ls (or dir) shell command
  • Added new examples: pong, tetrives, spaceship (games), logo (graphics), adcpoll, adcscope (ADC operations)
  • Added the LTR (Lua Tiny RAM) patch
  • ROM FS content can be specified per board now
  • API semantic revisions (old code might not be compatible)
One of the biggest things present in this release that I think makes the project much more accessible to new users is the establishment of good documentation. The project now has documentation for how ports work (including the platform API used to allow peripheral-specific modules to work on various platforms with fairly consistent behavior), how to use the various modules added to the base Lua distribution, and tutorials/how-tos showing methods for everything from getting release binaries onto a device through to how to get a toolchain up and going to do development on the project. There are still a number of components that are yet to be added (or are in SVN, but not in this release) that are necessary for a 1.0 release; however, this is a release that many more people can dig into without needing to read through source code in order to figure out how to use even basic functionality. Now if we only had a perfect device that we could standardize on and get a vendor to sell it pre-loaded with eLua :-)