Built-in esptool flash (via Pythonx)

[petermm]

Optional use built-in esptool install via Pythonx.

add pythonx to your project:
{:pythonx, "~> 0.4.0", runtime: false}

and mix atomvm.esp32.flash

[UncleGrumpy]

Forgive my ignorance, but wouldn’t this lead to pythonx being included in the user application? It would be neat if we could just auto detect if esptool is already installed, and if not use pythonx automatically… kind of the reverse logic of what you added to the esp32.flash task.

[petermm]

lol, yes - I updated things to runtime: false..

one could argue for your suggested logic, but this PR goes for if {:pythonx, "~> 0.4.0", runtime: false} is there, we use it..

(I've had issues with idf_path, and using pythonx also means version control of esptool)

[UncleGrumpy]

I don't use the esptool in IDF path either. I use a package manager installed version. It's available in every distro I use, and that way I am always using the current version, even if testing an older (i.e. 5.1) ESP-IDF build of the VM.

[UncleGrumpy]

using pythonx also means version control of esptool

This is actually a very good argument for using pythonx all the time... ignoring any other installed versions of esptool. It would also allow for less setup friction for Elixir developers (and presumably Erlang if we take this approach with the atomvm_rebar3_plugin) who are using microcontrollers for the first time with AtomVM, and downloading release images. It would be nice to have one less thing to have listed under the setup requirements, or to remember to add to mix.exs.

[petermm]

Agreed, but pythonx is otp25+ and elixir 1.15+, so for the time being it needs to be optional..

Think PR is good as is, as to also test it out - I'll update the igniter install to use this as default..