Given that this is realistically a tool for hobbyists or people rapidly prototyping a concept, does it matter if you choose to build a thermostat in VB (assuming you liked VB enough to consider it) or hand tuned assembly?
Anyone who tries to bring a product to market with this will presumably be crushed by those who can use less expensive components from better optimized code. At scale, even a few pennies per unit can make a huge difference in your profitability. It seems quite unlikely, for at least the foreseeable future, where you will buy an off-the-shelf thermostat with one of these inside - or anything else running Javascript for that matter - simply due to component costs, if nothing else.
But if you are a web developer who wants to hook up a light that flashes when someone visits your web page, something like this might be a reasonable choice. Being able to build something that works reasonably well with minimal effort is appealing. Who cares if it adds $30 to your BOM and maybe doesn't work every single time?
Personally, this is probably not a device I would be interested in. Playing with embedded systems at a low level is what makes it fun for me, but not everyone wants to learn C and assembly just to throw together a project in their spare time. I think this could be a pretty great product for that certain niche.
Anyone who tries to bring a product to market with this will presumably be crushed by those who can use less expensive components from better optimized code. At scale, even a few pennies per unit can make a huge difference in your profitability. It seems quite unlikely, for at least the foreseeable future, where you will buy an off-the-shelf thermostat with one of these inside - or anything else running Javascript for that matter - simply due to component costs, if nothing else.
But if you are a web developer who wants to hook up a light that flashes when someone visits your web page, something like this might be a reasonable choice. Being able to build something that works reasonably well with minimal effort is appealing. Who cares if it adds $30 to your BOM and maybe doesn't work every single time?
Personally, this is probably not a device I would be interested in. Playing with embedded systems at a low level is what makes it fun for me, but not everyone wants to learn C and assembly just to throw together a project in their spare time. I think this could be a pretty great product for that certain niche.