🎁 Mark your calendars for December 1st 🎁

This repository is proudly part of the 2024 F# Advent Calendar, hosted by Sergey Tihon.

We’re gearing up to reveal exciting news—and you’ll have a chance to win a unique Christmas present from us!

In the meantime, get started with PXL apps and unleash your creativity. Dive into the code, explore, and have fun building something awesome.

📣 Spread the holiday cheer! Share this repository and help us make this a memorable event for the dotnet community.

✨ Stay tuned—big surprises are on the way!

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🎄 Welcome to the PXL Challenge 🎄

Eager to experience the vibrant colors and smooth animations of the PXL-MK1? Excited to start programming it?

Here's your opportunity to dive in! Use our fun and easy-to-use programming environment to create pixel art and animations that will be displayed on the PXL-MK1.

Until you have the opportunity to hold the real thing in your hands, you can start coding and testing your apps in the simulator!

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following set up:

Mandatory

• .NET 8 SDK

Optional (Recommended)

• Visual Studio Code (VSCode)
• Ionide-fsharp Extension for VSCode

Fork the Repository

Best practice is to fork this repository to your GitHub account. This way, you can experiment with the code and save your changes, and maybe there will be some surprises along the way. 🎁

Prepare the Sprites

Check out the sprites 🖼️ in ./PxlApps/assets (like pizzaMampf.png) and swap them with your own custom artwork to personalize your app.

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🚀 Start the Simulator

Before running any apps, you’ll need to start the simulator.

⚠️ Important: Only one simulator should be running at a time.

1. Open the list of build tasks in VSCode:
   • Press Ctrl+Shift+B (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Shift+B (macOS).
2. Select Start Simulator from the list.

As an alternative for the VSCode build task, just run ./start-simulator.sh in your terminal.

Run an App

Explore the demo apps and tutorials in the ./PxlApps directory.

Steps to Run an App:

1. Ensure the simulator is running (see above).
2. Open an app file (e.g. ./PxlApps/RoundClock.fsx) in VSCode.
3. Select the entire content of the file and run it by pressing Alt+Enter (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Enter (macOS).

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🎉 Enjoy experimenting!

You can modify the code, open new files, and re-run apps as often as you like. Simply re-evaluate the entire file (that's the mose easy way.)

Want to create your own apps? Use the examples as a starting point, and let your imagination run wild!

🌟 Thank You for Being a Part of This Journey!