A high-level language like JavaScript certainly lowers the barrier to entry, and eases the learning curve. This year I started playing with Raspberry Pi, Ardui

A high-level language like JavaScript certainly lowers the barrier to entry, and eases the learning curve. This year I started playing with Raspberry Pi, Arduino, various sensors and motors. So far I've mainly used Johnny Five ¹ on Node.js to orchestrate things. It was so simple to jump in, with an easy ubiquitous language, and I was able to spend time learning the actual hardware and developing the logic. For my needs, an interpreted language has been plenty capable. As I get deeper though, I'm finding a need for near real-time control (timing, to be precise), as performant as I can make it. For that, I'm (re)turning to C, a language I last used a couple dedades ago. It's tougher going but definitely rewarding. I'm so glad for the friendly introduction to the field, like Python and Arduino sketches. It reminds me of my pre/teen days, hacking at a personal (well, family) computer, getting familiar with a marvel of technology through exploration and discovery. ¹ https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five/ https://github.com/rwaldron/johnny-five/