Birth of a New Version

I just released a new version of a library I've been working on for an AVR-based robot controller. Rather for a family of robot controllers -- there are now three devices the library supports. It's still in the 0.x version range, complete with bugs, lack of functionality, and sparse documentation. Still, it's nerve-wracking to actually roll something out and say, "Here you go!"

I know it's not perfect. I'm pretty sure it's not even all that good, and that a real embedded processor professional would laugh themselves silly if they looked at it. Still, it's my fervent hope that the target audience, namely people new to the devices, will see it for what it is: a way to get going and not get too frustrated in the process.

I'm encouraged when I look at the download stats from the previous version. All together over two hundred copies were downloaded before this release came out. Still, I looked at the ratings on AVR Freaks and found the previous version had one vote, and that vote was a zero. In the hopes that PT Barnum was right, I won't take it too hard.

It's at times like this that I feel kinda like Mongo (the giant gingerbread man in Shreck 2), having cast my code out onto the internet. I find myself thinking, "Be goooooooood..." Shortly before drowning, armless, in the moat outside the castle.

Tom

P.S. I realize I have yet to write a machine shop post! My shop really is mostly for metalworking rather than electron-pushing. Still, you post what you do, and I've been wrapped up in this so much recently. Ah well, if it's all fun, it's all good.