Portability & platforms

Portability is PyDevices's defining feature. Write your display, input, and timing code once against board_config, and it runs unchanged across every supported runtime and target below. This page is the single home for the platform matrix; each row links to platform-specific notes.

Where PyDevices runs

Runtime	Microcontrollers	Unix / Linux	Windows	Android	Browser / PWA	Jupyter Notebook
MicroPython	✅	✅	✅	—	✅ PyScript · PWA · Wokwi	—
CircuitPython	✅	✅	—	—	—	—
CPython	—	✅	✅	✅ Android APK	—	✅ Jupyter

Installable browser apps: the PyScript gallery ships as a Progressive Web App — install it on desktop Chromium, Android Chrome, or iOS home screen. That is a major distribution path, not a demo-only trick. See where PWAs run.

How portability works

The same import works on every platform:

from board_config import display_drv
from app_runtime import runtime

What changes is which display backend is used — displaydev.auto.AutoDisplay on desktop / PyScript / Jupyter (via the desktop board_config), or an explicit per-board config on hardware:

Backend	Used on	Selected by
BusDisplay	MicroPython / CircuitPython MCUs (SPI / I80)	board config
FBDisplay	CircuitPython framebuffer displays (RGB, USB video)	board config
SDLDisplay	CPython, MicroPython Unix, CircuitPython Unix (SDL2); Android APK; Linux KMS	auto / board_configs/sdldisplay/ · sdldisplay/linux_kms/
WinDisplay	Windows CPython (native Win32 via uwin32)	auto (first on win32) / board_configs/windisplay/
PGDisplay	CPython desktop (PyGame)	auto / board_configs/pgdisplay/
PSDisplay	PyScript browser canvas and PWAs	auto
JNDisplay	Jupyter Notebook	auto

Input is just as portable: a mouse on the desktop, a finger on a touchscreen, and a tap in the browser all arrive as the same events. Timers come from multimer, which picks a backend (machine.Timer, librt, win32, threads, polling, SDL, or asyncio) to suit the host.

See Displays for backend details and Architecture for how the pieces fit together.

Platform notes

• MicroPython — MCUs, Unix, Windows, bus drivers, frozen firmware.
• CircuitPython — MCUs and Unix; framebufferio and the framebuf shim.
• CPython desktop — SDL2 / PyGame setup for Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Android — CPython APK builds with python-for-android and buildozer.
• Progressive Web Apps (PWA) — where installable PyScript apps run (desktop, Android Chrome, iOS, TVs).
• Jupyter Notebook — interactive display widget and async execution model.
• Run the notebook interactively — JupyterLab / VS Code setup (the RTD notebook page is static).
• PyScript — running in the browser (PSDisplay).

Build GUIs across platforms

Because the backend is portable, anything built on PyDevices inherits that portability — including the LVGL sister projects for MicroPython, CircuitPython, and CPython. You can even prototype an LVGL app in Jupyter and run it unchanged on a microcontroller.