Fabio NataliMy 36-key #RP2040-powered custom #MechanicalKeyboard is almost ready! I now need to flash it, but I can't say I'm impressed by any of the popular firmware projects. 😒 My gripe spans from GitHub being used as a synonym for version control system, pipe-to-Bash of random scripts, toolchains hard to reproduce, etc.
I wonder if I could switch to something a bit more minimalist (and esoteric?) like #uLisp instead - another big yak to shave? Ideas?
Pete Johanson@fnat more keyboard firmware options the better! (And mea culpa here: the Zephyr toolchain setup *definitely* is a pain, so definitely don't fault you here for this take)
@petejohanson Hey Pete, thank you! My frustration is probably more towards some underlying aspects of today's technology at large as opposed to individual projects. Thank you for creating one of the major keyboard firmware projects and for making these efforts available open source!
Some of the things I mentioned might be worth considering as a nice-to-have, e.g. looking into getting some independence from GitHub. But I know one has to set priorities and make do with the time available!
🙏🙏🙏
@fnat GH independence is definitely on my radar. I was cautiously optimistic when Nat was first at the helm after the acquisition, but that's eroded year by year. ZMK was actually originally on GitLab when I first started work on it.
I'm most optimistic about Codeberg at this point, as a truly independent alternative, that's not drinking from the capital firehouse and chasing AI slop.
My biggest concern is mostly around CI, and evaluating if Woodpecker is viable for complex needs.
Sergio Pastor Pérez@fnat @petejohanson Hello! You may be interested in checking Guix packages for ZMK. I found that contribution lost in the mailing list, and I decided to host it in Codeberg so others could find it. And maybe even revive it.
It's quite cool, using those Guix packages you can build ZMK keyboards with Guix!
I did not have time to flash my own keyboards, but I tested that the packages build successfully (you may need to use Guix's time-machine). Check it out!
Aha! This sounds great! I'll look into it.
I wonder if this can be massaged into a Guix channel... That way, it could be added to a search engine or a "ring" like https://toys.whereis.social/. I actually did a quick search on Toys originally and wasn't able to find anything. I'll see if I can spend some time on this later this month and maybe suggest something. Ty for now.
@fnat @petejohanson It could definitely be a channel. I didn't find time to do it. But if there is interest, we can setup one.
arviceblot@fnat I used rmk for an rp2040 board and it was easy enough. https://github.com/haobogu/rmk
Bonkers