The MicroPython project
This is the MicroPython project, an implementation of Python 3.x for
microcontrollers, embedded systems and other constrained platforms.
You can find the official website at micropython.org.
MicroPython implements the entire Python 3.4 syntax (including exceptions,
with, yield from, etc., and additionally async/await keywords from
Python 3.5 and some select features from later versions). The following core
datatypes are provided: str(including basic Unicode support), bytes,
bytearray, tuple, list, dict, set, frozenset, array.array,
collections.namedtuple, classes and instances. Builtin modules include
os, sys, time, re, and struct, etc. Some ports have support for
_thread module (multithreading), socket and ssl for networking, and
asyncio. Note that only a subset of Python 3 functionality is implemented
for the data types and modules.
MicroPython can execute scripts in textual source form (.py files) or from
precompiled bytecode (.mpy files), in both cases either from an on-device
filesystem or "frozen" into the MicroPython executable.
MicroPython also provides a set of MicroPython-specific modules to access
hardware-specific functionality and peripherals such as GPIO, Timers, ADC,
DAC, PWM, SPI, I2C, CAN, Bluetooth, and USB.
Getting started
See the online documentation for the API
reference and information about using MicroPython and information about how
it is implemented.
We use GitHub Discussions
as our forum, and Discord for chat. These
are great places to ask questions and advice from the community or to discuss your
MicroPython-based projects.
For bugs and feature requests, please raise an issue
and follow the templates there.
For information about the MicroPython pyboard,
the officially supported board from the
original Kickstarter campaign,
see the schematics and pinouts and
documentation.
MicroPython design values
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there
is nothing left to take away." ―- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
For its design and implementation, MicroPython aims to follow a set of values.
Although not a strict set of rules, these values and principles serve as a
useful guide for new and seasoned contributors, as well as maintainers.
MicroPython is at heart a combination of "Micro" and "Python": it's about
resource constrained systems running the Python programming language. Both of
these concepts balance off against each other in all parts of MicroPython's
design and implementation.
The key concepts that focus the development of MicroPython are:
- Minimalism: do lots with little.
- Efficiency: engineering, build, execution, storage, power consumption.
- Consistency: the whole system feels like it was designed at once.
When using MicroPython, the Python language is used as the human interface to a
system, giving fine control over the entities attached to that system.
In a hardware setting, MicroPython aims to give the user a bare-metal feeling:
one should feel like they have complete control over the system, with very
little between the programmer and the physical world.
MicroPython recognises that systems can be very complex. The existing Python
libraries in combination with the MicroPython-specific libraries provide a
user-friendly way to harness the complexity of a system.
Python language compatibility is very important to MicroPython, and at first
glance MicroPython should look just like regular Python. In the first instance,
most Python scripts should run unchanged on MicroPython, even on devices with very
tight resources. Beyond that, there are ways to extend MicroPython if needed to
better match Python. The provided built-in modules are an efficient subset of
the corresponding Python ones, without duplication of functionality, and allow
extension in Python if needed.
Contributing
MicroPython is an open-source project and welcomes contributions. To be
productive, please be sure to follow the
Contributors' Guidelines
and the Code Conventions.
Note that MicroPython is licenced under the MIT license, and all contributions
should follow this license.
This is the beginning of the README. Read the rest at the original. Read the full README ↗
