NOTE: A better alternative to the Roky Python implementation is PurpleBug.
PurpleBug is a graphical interface to the Roku Debugger for Windows users.
You can find PurpleBug at http://belltown-roku.tk/PurpleBug
Roky is a Windows console client for the Roku Debugger that provides line-editing, command history, and support for Unicode debugger output, unlike most Windows Telnet clients.
Roky is a Python program requiring Python version 3.5 or later. It might be possible to port the code to run on a Mac, or to use an earlier version of Python, but I'll leave that up to others.
Roky has been tested to run under the Windows cmd.exe, PowerShell, and MinGW command interpreters.
Download roky.py from https://github.com/belltown/roky/blob/master/roky.py [right-click on the Raw button, then click Save Link As... or Save target as..., depending on your browser].
Download and run the Python Windows installer (version 3.5 or higher) from: https://www.python.org/downloads/. This should install the Python Launcher, py.
If you only have one version of Python installed, you can run roky using:
py roky.py 192.168.0.12
If you have both versions 2 and 3 of Python installed, you may need to type:
py -3 roky.py 192.168.0.12
The Roku IP address has a default value in the code that you can easily change to avoid having to type the IP address every time.
For quick launching, pin a Command Prompt shortcut to your Windows taskbar, right-click on it, then right-click again on the context-menu Command Prompt icon, select Properties, then change Target to: C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /k "py -3 C:\Programs\roky.py 192.168.0.12", substituting your own Roku IP address and roky.py location. You can also change the Command Prompt font, colors, screen buffer size, etc.
py roky.py -h
usage: roky.py [-h] [-f font-height] [-o output-file] [host] [port]
roky -- the Roku Debugger wrapper
positional arguments:
host Roku's IP address (default 192.168.0.6)
port Roku's debugging port (default 8085)
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f font-height Consolas font height in pixels
-o output-file log debug output to file
Documention on GitHub and at http://belltown-roku.tk/Roky
The small console window supports these line-editing keys:
- Page Up: first history item
- Page Down: last history item
- Home: start of line
- End: end of line
- Up arrow: previous history item
- Down arrow: next history item
- Left arrow: cursor left
- Right arrow: cursor right
- Backspace: delete character before cursor
- Delete: delete character at cursor
- Enter: send line to Roku Debugger
- Insert: toggle between insert and over-write
All Roku Debugger commands may be used. Ctrl/C breaks into the debugger.
Type quit in the small command window to exit.
The debugger output window has full Unicode support. Ideally, set your Windows console font to Consolas, which can display the first 1300 Unicode characters: click the console icon (top-left corner of the console window), select Properties>Font, then set your Font and Size. Alternatively, use the roky -f command-line option, e.g. -f 20, which will automatically use the Consolas font with the specified pixel height.
Unicode characters above 1300 are rendered as one or two \uhhhh sequences. Note that some of the ASCII control characters are escaped as \xhh. Other ASCII control characters come from the Roku as space or ?.
Due to the way the Windows console and Python readline functions work, roky requires two independent console windows: one for entering debugger commands, and one for viewing debugger output only. However, roky will create the second command window for you, and you can move and resize the windows. For example, you can move the main window off to the (right) side, so you still have a partial view of your BrightScript code, and put the smaller command window overlaying, or above, the main window.
