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  • Author Author: colporteur
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What is your Integrated Development Environment (IDE) of choice for Arduino?

colporteur

I like to revisit this question from time to time to see what is new and could bring about a change. Knowing the community's broad user base, I thought it would be a good place to ask. Maybe a poll would have been a better tool to gather responses. I busy cooking burgers on the BBQ so I don't have time to learn how to do that again.

I have been using the IDE from Arduino. I am using version 1.8.19 and haven't built up the courage to upgrade to the latest version. It works! What more can I ask for?

I was using PlatformIO but found the learning curve or better remember how to perform tasks difficult. It seemed every time I needed an library I had to break out the books to learn how to do it.  I find if I don't use an application on a regular basis I forget. I'm not a programmer. What I have learned about programming is through system administration. 

I recently read an article on Arduino for Visual Studio Code. After four hours of investment, I abandoned the exercise. I failed to find a clear concise instruction set to configure the environment. I never did find how to load an external library. I spent an hour just trying to get the c_cpp_properties.json configuration file setup without errors. There were google posts on setup but nothing for Linux.

  • What is your go-to IDE for Arduino programming?
  • What do you classify your programming experience level.? Novice, Intermediate or Expert.
  • What makes the program ideal for you?
  • Would you recommend it and to what experience level?
  • What operating system are you using the program on?

I have a big Arduino project that can use the support of a good IDE. I am back to exploring PlatformIO on VSC. It offered some programming support I can definitely use. Maybe your suggestion might lead me down another path. Look forward to your responses.

  • I am an Arduino fan. Can I divide my reply between IDE and libraries?

    • Libraries: I love them. The majority are well-built. Great implementations of protocols and sensor APIs.
      (when you look at the adafruit and sparkfun ones: they also are great examples of lean-and clean object-oriented designs)
      Several manufacturers provide Arduino examples. I did a ROHM road test, and I evaluated their sample code and sensor libs. That was excellent code.
      Many volunteers have written very good support for a variety of devices
      I like the way they abstracted RTOS for several devices (that support wifi, BLE, ...). You are multitasking before you realise it.
    • IDE: that's though love. 
      I am opiniated, think that debugging, and version control, are essential to do any development that will live outside your mother's basement.
      IDE version 1 takes 5 minutes to get started. And that's great. But several IDEs that support efficiency, take a half day. That's 3 hours and 55 minutes of gain - in a lifetime.
      The online IDE is better in my view. It has version control built in (you can ignore it, but it's available). Still lacks good debugging support - compared to competitors.
    • I have version 2 running. I think it's an improvement. And kudos: improvements without adding crazy complexity. You have additional functionality, but for a starter it is as easy as version 1.
      I have not tried its debug functions yet, because I do not have a debugger or board that this IDE supports. (I have debuggers, and have boards with on-board debug support. Unfortunately, no compatible match.

    Your questions:

    • What is your go-to IDE for Arduino programming?
      I mostly use the latest version 1 release.
    • What do you classify your programming experience level.? Novice, Intermediate or Expert.
      Expert
    • What makes the program ideal for you?
      I don't think it's ideal. I like that I can create POCs fast. And That there's a vast support library for devices and sensors
    • Would you recommend it and to what experience level?
      Yes for anyone that wants to learn, experiment. No if you want to make firmware that is production level and can be sustained during a product's lifecycle. Or when you are dealing with low power designs.
    • What operating system are you using the program on?
      Windows, Linux, cloud.