circuitpython VS CPython

Compare circuitpython vs CPython and see what are their differences.

circuitpython

CircuitPython - a Python implementation for teaching coding with microcontrollers (by adafruit)

CPython

The Python programming language (by python)
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circuitpython CPython
93 1302
3,862 59,047
1.6% 1.7%
0.0 10.0
2 days ago 3 days ago
C Python
MIT License GNU General Public License v3.0 or later
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

circuitpython

Posts with mentions or reviews of circuitpython. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2023-12-06.
  • Unveiling secrets of the ESP32: creating an open-source Mac layer
    5 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Dec 2023
    The barrier to entry has never been lower. Last night I prototyped some code in Python on my Mac to talk to a Bluetooth peripheral, and then had ChatGPT translate it to Arduino C++ code for a $5 ESP32 which mostly worked on the first go.

    You can even run Python on microcontrollers these days. See Adafruit's https://circuitpython.org for which they publish modules for many (almost all?) of the sensors they sell. The modern microcontroller frameworks hide much of the complexity of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, filesystems, etc. so you can do complicated things with minimal effort. You can really cobble something together in an afternoon.

  • ALT.CTRL.GameCraft Workshop @ Beta Festival Write-up
    3 projects | dev.to | 7 Nov 2023
    The Pico runs CircuitPython and uses Adafruit's HID library to emulate a keyboard. It's also possible to emulate a mouse and a gamepad (there are some experiments for gamepad emulation in experiments).
  • HT1632c library for circuitpython
    2 projects | /r/circuitpython | 21 Jun 2023
    Asked your question in the adafruit discord and they said there's no HT1632c library for circuit python yet. There is a library for micropython. You can request to have it ported from the Micropython library I linked to by opening a feature request in the Circuit Python Github. That would be your best option for now or attempt to port the library yourself.
  • Question about programming arduino
    2 projects | /r/arduino | 3 Jun 2023
  • Projects for newbs!
    2 projects | /r/arduino | 21 Apr 2023
    I'm aware of two versions of Python for microcontrollers. Micro Python and Circuit Python
  • Rotary Encoder - Double click
    2 projects | /r/raspberrypipico | 4 Jan 2023
    There was a whole Github discussion on whether or not CircuitPy should use interrupts.
  • Circuitpython Reference?
    2 projects | /r/circuitpython | 29 Dec 2022
    Let me google that for you.
  • Is the statement true, that Python and its ecosystem lacks speed for mission-critical large-scale applications?
    6 projects | /r/Python | 27 Nov 2022
    As the cost of more powerful micro-controllers continues to drop, the time and cost savings that comes with working in higher-level languages is starting to outweigh the cost of using cheaper/less-powerful micro-controllers. There are already options such as micropython and circuitpython for using Python on micro-controllers, but they're not in wide commercial use as of yet (as far as I'm aware).
  • Five simple steps to use any Arduino C++ library in a Rust project 🦀
    11 projects | dev.to | 13 Nov 2022
    Arduino helps circuit developers to build electronic projects and is, perhaps, the most used open-source hardware and software platform. It is popular across millions of hobbyists across the world. Historically, Arduino boards are programmed with C++ programming language using the Arduino IDE. The availability of powerful ARM-based Arduino-compatible boards made it possible to use python, JavaScript, or even a browser to program your circuit. While they are easier to study for a new joiner without an existing programming background, C++ stays a default language choice, especially when dealing with cheap and low-memory AVR-controller boards and having a need to run more or less complex projects.
  • Is Rust a viable alternative to C / C++?
    2 projects | /r/arduino | 1 Nov 2022
    If your application doesn't need every bit of performance or memory, consider CircuitPython or MicroPython. The CircuitPython community is a bit more active but CircuitPython needs native USB support on the MCU, so out of the ESP family, only the ESP-S2 and ESP-S3 currently support it. MicroPython can run on any ESP (okay not certain about the C3).

CPython

Posts with mentions or reviews of CPython. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-15.
  • Open source at Fastly is getting opener
    10 projects | dev.to | 15 Mar 2024
    Through the Fast Forward program, we give free services and support to open source projects and the nonprofits that support them. We support many of the world’s top programming languages (like Python, Rust, Ruby, and the wonderful Scratch), foundational technologies (cURL, the Linux kernel, Kubernetes, OpenStreetMap), and projects that make the internet better and more fun for everyone (Inkscape, Mastodon, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Terms of Service; Didn’t Read).
  • C++ Safety, in Context
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 12 Mar 2024
    In my understanding, no. I believe it was bpo-4489 [1], and I couldn't find a matching advisory from the PSF's database [2] which should contain all historical advisories as well.

    [1] https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/48739

    [2] https://github.com/psf/advisory-database/

  • The GIL can now be disabled in Python's main branch
    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Mar 2024
  • Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)
    10 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 7 Mar 2024
    How do you mean? CPython uses karatsuba's for large numbers which should be asymptotically fast

    https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/d864b0094f9875c5613cb...

  • Top Paying Programming Technologies 2024
    19 projects | dev.to | 6 Mar 2024
    24. Python - $78,331
  • What is really an API? Examples, Code + History
    3 projects | dev.to | 3 Mar 2024
    a. Setting Up: Make sure you have Python and pip (package installer) installed. If you do not have Python, you can install the latest version from the Python ecosystem here
  • How to make a turtle racing game in Python
    2 projects | dev.to | 29 Feb 2024
    First, if you don't have Python installed on your machine, go to python.org to download the latest version of Python and then install it right away.
  • PySimpleGUI 4 will be sunsetted in Q2 2024
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 14 Feb 2024
    You missed that they gave an example that does work—Java Swing is bundled with the JVM, making it more or less part of the standard library. Python itself also has Tkinter, which exists inside the cpython repo and is installed with Python [0].

    C++ may not work, but most other languages (especially VM-based) can and many do.

    [0] https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/3.12/Lib/tkinter/__in...

  • Memray – A Memory Profiler for Python
    10 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 10 Feb 2024
    I collected a list of profilers (also memory profilers, also specifically for Python) here: https://github.com/albertz/wiki/blob/master/profiling.md

    Currently I actually need a Python memory profiler, because I want to figure out whether there is some memory leak in my application (PyTorch based training script), and where exactly (in this case, it's not a problem of GPU memory, but CPU memory).

    I tried Scalene (https://github.com/plasma-umass/scalene), which seems to be powerful, but somehow the output it gives me is not useful at all? It doesn't really give me a flamegraph, or a list of the top lines with memory allocations, but instead it gives me a listing of all source code lines, and prints some (very sparse) information on each line. So I need to search through that listing now by hand to find the spots? Maybe I just don't know how to use it properly.

    I tried Memray, but first ran into an issue (https://github.com/bloomberg/memray/issues/212), but after using some workaround, it worked now. I get a flamegraph out, but it doesn't really seem accurate? After a while, there don't seem to be any new memory allocations at all anymore, and I don't quite trust that this is correct.

    There is also Austin (https://github.com/P403n1x87/austin), which I also wanted to try (have not yet).

    Somehow this experience so far was very disappointing.

    (Side node, I debugged some very strange memory allocation behavior of Python before, where all local variables were kept around after an exception, even though I made sure there is no reference anymore to the exception object, to the traceback, etc, and I even called frame.clear() for all frames to really clear it. It turns out, frame.f_locals will create another copy of all the local variables, and the exception object and all the locals in the other frame still stay alive until you access frame.f_locals again. At that point, it will sync the f_locals again with the real (fast) locals, and then it can finally free everything. It was quite annoying to find the source of this problem and to find workarounds for it. https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/113939)

  • Setting Up the Environment
    2 projects | dev.to | 15 Jan 2024
    Python, a versatile and powerful programming language, can be easily installed from its official website: https://www.python.org/. This section will guide you through the installation process on various operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing circuitpython and CPython you can also consider the following projects:

MicroPython - MicroPython - a lean and efficient Python implementation for microcontrollers and constrained systems

RustPython - A Python Interpreter written in Rust

ipython - Official repository for IPython itself. Other repos in the IPython organization contain things like the website, documentation builds, etc.

Vulpix - Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for .NET core inspired by express.js

Visual Studio Code - Visual Studio Code

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Pandas - Flexible and powerful data analysis / manipulation library for Python, providing labeled data structures similar to R data.frame objects, statistical functions, and much more

Camunda BPM - Flexible framework for workflow and decision automation with BPMN and DMN. Integration with Quarkus, Spring, Spring Boot, CDI.

Django - The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines.

go - The Go programming language

micropython-ulab - a numpy-like fast vector module for micropython, circuitpython, and their derivatives

Plex-Meta-Manager - Python script to update metadata information for items in plex as well as automatically build collections and playlists. The Wiki Documentation is linked below.