Coding for coffee: a programmer shares the secrets of writing espresso applications

A programmer-centric view of the Decent Espresso machine project, four years after the first presentation introducing it it    • A programmers overview of Decent Espresso   - Slides PDF: http://decent.la/doc/eurotcl2023.pdf

0:13 - Update to first Tcl presentation in 2019, when 13,000 people watched    • A programmers overview of Decent Espresso  
0:50 - Making espresso was largely intuition-based
1:17 - Idea to build a computer that happens to make coffee
1:42 - Tcl TK was the ideal programming platform
2:18 - Example: calibrating with TK app running on AndroWish 7 years ago
2:35 - The project would have three life cycles.
2:42 - It's a computer that makes espresso, but it needed software.
3:16 - Created a simple editor, simplified to three steps: flow, temperature and pressure.
3:27 - Programmers needed more flexibility, thus the birth of the multi-step editor
3:38 - Design was based on everything that existed already
4:00 - Espresso is difficult!
4:30 - Put customers on a Basecamp forum to share info
5:00 - The Visualizer app enabled users to upload data for every cup of coffee made
5:21 - Every espresso can be a VM coffee, it can be downloaded and recreated
5:48 - In March the one-millionth cup of coffee was uploaded to this site
6:00 - Initially presented the data simply, with no interpretation
6:33 - But this meant there was no coffee knowledge shared, too scientific
6:48 - People wanted user interfaces specific to one style of coffee, not generic
7:00 - Example: Londonium coffee style emulated an old lever machine
7:45 - Phase two: simplifying and sharing info
8:05 - Last phase: tolerance for human imperfection and things that go wrong
9:05 - Created UI on AndroWish that displayed data neutrally
9:35 - A customer created a tablet-friendly widgets library because Tcl TK user interface isn't optimum for a tablet
10:43 - App extensions, about 30 plugins, open source
12:40 - Easily create your own UIs (aka "skins"), language-within-a-language
12:59 - Examples of user-created UIs
13:33 - Sample skin (code), things appear and disappear as you use them
14:09 - Skin writing extensions (examples)
14:45 - Software updates over the air, and issues that can arise
16:15 - Everything labeled through Git, workarounds
17:50 - Challenges with the app, Bluetooth reliability and why we used Bluetooth
18:30 - Developing for Android on a desktop
19:00 - Cool feature added to AndroWish - it can run the app to your web browser
19:50 - Plans to create a dongle with a small Linux computer that runs mp4 stream to your computer's browser
20:24 - Profiles to make espresso are combo of Tcl data and code and would be forbidden on iOS
20:41 - The openness (open source) is part of the success
21: 13 - What kind of people embrace Tcl?
23:00 - Challenges of working with other programmers who add features
24:08 - Make some of these features into a skin that someone has to upload
24:35 - Variations in resolution and solutions
25:00 - Right-to-left languages and challenges
26:51 - How Tcl outperforms other programs, why we didn't use JavaScript
28:29 - Bluetooth is an issue
29:11 - Future for us with Tcl
30:12 - Our proxy converts Bluetooth to web sockets
31:48 - What about NaviServer?