Software Developer Guides

Here you will find guides to help you understand impOS™ concepts and common coding tasks, illustrated with sample code. Our developer guides also provide references and guidance for a number of Squirrel language programming and peripheral hardware topics.

Core imp Programming Topics

• Event-Driven Programming — Understand the imp application architecture
• Effective Internet-agent-device Communication — How imp-enabled devices interact with the outside world
• How To Run An imp-enabled Device Offline — Deal with WiFi loss and planned disconnections
• Device Sleep And Pause States Explained — How impOS™ and Squirrel manage low-power operation
• How To Write imp Loop Structures — Ensure your loops don’t block impOS
• Data Persistence In imp Applications — Preserve data across server and device restarts
• Audio Waveforms And The imp — Use Samplers and Fixed-Frequency DACs
• How To Restart An imp And Its Application — Understanding the imp API’s device reboot options
• An Introduction To Debugging Electric Imp Application Code — How to deal with common code errors

Network Interface Management And Local Networking

• imp Network Interface Management — Understand impOS’ new mechanism for network selection
• How To Connect To Devices On A Local Network — Inside impOS’ New LAN Functionality

Bluetooth

• Using BLE With The imp004m — Advertising, scanning and data-exchange
• Using BLE With The imp006

USB

• USB Driver Development Guide — How to create new USB drivers
• USB Application Development Guide — How to integrate USB drivers into your code

Polite Deployment

• Polite impOS Deployment — How to ensure that system software updates don’t interrupt busy devices
• Polite Squirrel Deployment — How to ensure that Squirrel code updates don’t interrupt busy devices

Agent Topics

• Mitigating Agent Migrations — How your application can manage unexpected agent restarts
• Implement Extra Agent Security — How to provide additional protection for agents that host APIs

Squirrel Programming Topics

• Squirrel Programming Guide — The language in detail
• Squirrel Application Development Guidelines — Key techniques to help you create successful Electric Imp apps
• Electric Imp Squirrel Code Style — Best practices for presenting your code
• Writing Efficient Squirrel — Optimize your Squirrel code for size and performance
• Squirrel Error Handling — How to use try, catch, throw and assert()
• Squirrel Data Serialization — Learn what data types can and can’t be serialized in Squirrel
• Squirrel Closures And Context Objects — Understand and use this, call() And bindenv()

Advanced Software Topics

• Squirrel Object Management — How the garbage collector keeps track of instances
• Using Squirrel Metamethods — Override operators in classes and tables
• Squirrel Generator Functions — Apply parallel-processing techniques
• Endian-ness in Squirrel Code — Understand the ordering of multi-byte integers

Migration From Other Platforms

• Porting Arduino Code To The imp — Take advantage of open source software libraries