June 16, 2026

Python (and Lua) on the Pico

I have been interested in the idea of running small footprint languages on microcontrollers. At one time Tcl would have been a candidate. Two things disqualify it. One is that Tcl has grown and become bloated, to the point where more modern and pleasant languages have a similar footprint. The other thing is that Tcl is plain awful, and given nice alternatives, there is no reason to put up with it.

Lua is interesting, and were it not for python in a similar footprint, it would be the win. Python is available in a form known as "CircuitPython" and this deserves investigation when I get time.


Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's electronics pages / tom@mmto.org