Microsoft MakeCode brings computer science to life with fun projects, immediate results, and both blocks and text editors for learners of all levels!
We are very excited to remove the beta label from https://makecode.adafruit.com. This update brings Scratch style rendering of the blocks, better support for assistive technologies, a console view, and many - many - many fixes.
The editor is out of beta and is considered a stable release now. You shouldn’t expect to see any API or major UI changes going forward.
In this release, we’ve re-vamped the look of our blocks which are now aligned with Scratch. We’ve based our open source Blockly fork (pxt-blockly) on scratch-blocks.
Vision impaired students can use screen readers, such as Narrator, for audible navigation and identification of visual elements. The JavaScript editor also offers additional features for assistive technologies.
High contrast mode helps low-vision students locate and distinguish the different visual elements in the MakeCode editor.
Use the new console blocks to log text or stream values to our new console output viewer. You can visualize data from the simulator or from the Circuit Playground Express itself using our Windows App.
Adafruit has had paid day off for voting for our team for years, if you need help getting that going for your organization, let us know – we can share how and why we did this as well as the good results. Here are some resources for voting by mail, voting in person, and some NY resources for our NY based teams as well. If there are additional resources to add, please let us know – adafruit.com/vote
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.
