So…you are learning how the terminal helps you do impressively powerful things on your Raspberry Pi quickly — things that you might typically rely on a resource-hungry GUI on another desktop or laptop rig.
You’ve heard of this thing called “vi” or “vim” that so many coders and techies get almost religiously fanatical about (unless they are of an “emacs” persuasion) — it is how coders write notes, grocery lists, code, manifestos, and books.
Here are two resources to check out — Open Vim offers an interactive tutorial system to get you up to speed very quickly by making you feel brilliant, and then Vimgolf.com destroys your mind and proves to you that this stuff can be rather arcane and elaborate. Somewhere between the two you will learn what you need to work with your Pi really quickly without needing the overhead of a GUI when you tackle OS configuration, basic scripting, and shopping lists.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.