Visual Studio

and the Arduino plugin... Is it worth the time? is it any improvement on the IDE? is it an aid to learning the language?. I signed up with MSDN and got the proggie's.
I am reluctant to install a lot of "Stuff" on my 'new' computer I bought a fast 6 core AMD w/8 Gig's of ram and I don't want to load it down. Seems like every computer I've owned has "Choked up" after a while and I think that the reason is all the 'neat' but terminally useless items, use them once or twice and forget them.

Doc

is it any improvement on the IDE?

That all depends on whether you think the IDE needs improvement.

Docedison:
I signed up with MSDN and got the proggie's.

Did you see a doctor?

Did you see a doctor?

Damn. Tea splattered all over the monitor.

Docedison:
and the Arduino plugin... Is it worth the time? is it any improvement on the IDE? is it an aid to learning the language?. I signed up with MSDN and got the proggie's.
I am reluctant to install a lot of "Stuff" on my 'new' computer I bought a fast 6 core AMD w/8 Gig's of ram and I don't want to load it down. Seems like every computer I've owned has "Choked up" after a while and I think that the reason is all the 'neat' but terminally useless items, use them once or twice and forget them.

Doc

It is the same language, it is just another interface, you can use any editor.

Come on, Visual Studio has it's merits, for Windows programming in C#, for example.

For Java, I prefer Eclipse.
For Arduino I'm happy with the Arduino "IDE" , and smile about it's intellisense mockup (color coding by keyword lookup, hehe)

That VisalStudio plugin can't be worse, but I don't know. I can't imagine it allows for remote debugging on the atmel processor.


Buying software makes you feel being the customer, not the product being sold, by g**gle.

[edit: typos are only visible in quotes]

michael_x:
Come on, Visual Studio has it's merits, for Windows programming in C#, for example.

For Java, I prefer Eclipse.
For Arduino I'm happy with the Arduino "IDE" , and smile about it's intellisense mockup (color coding by keyword lookup, hehe)

That VisalStudio plugin can't be worse, but I don't know. I can't imagine it allows for remote debugging on the atmel processor.


Bying software makes you feel being the customer, not the product being sold, by g**gle.

The VS plugin is pretty well made, has debugging and breakpoint capabilities. It is true that I also don't like it vs the simplicity of the Arduino IDE that it is related with the board simplicity, but I think is a matter of taste.

Well... The Doctor told me... It Was free Wasn't it... (the Doctor too) I was interested in using the whole thing for the ST32 discovery thing later... this looks a great learning tool, or as the doctor Said; One more momentous waste of time... I do though wish I could find an easy tool to find missing Semicolons and Curly Braces... And Line numbers, imaginary or do I use my ... Late and I am Most tired... Gonna go get horizontal... Line numbers. Thanks all for the amazingly amusing back chatter, Really Quite funny, Nick I loved toe "Doctor" Joke.

Doc

Doctor who?

I do though wish I could find an easy tool to find missing Semicolons and Curly Braces.

It is called "The Compiler"

find missing Semicolons and Curly Braces

It can be annoying if someone alerts you on a missing semicolon, because you did not enter it yet.

But if you like that, and want a compiler running permanently in the background while you're typing, you should give those real IDEs a try, Doc.

It can be annoying if someone alerts you on a missing semicolon, because you did not enter it yet.

VB6 does that when you move off the line, it's a right PITA.


Rob

VB6 does that when you move off the line, it's a right PITA.

There are semicolons in VB6 ?
I thought if you enter a semicolon in VB.NET, a wizard pops up, asking if you want assistance moving your VB project to C# :wink:

Well, it's not that bad any more in VS2010, you just get a lot of red underlines to ignore, like the spell checking in Word.

There are semicolons in VB6 ?

No, but for syntax errors.

it's not that bad any more in VS2010, you just get a lot of red underlines to ignore,

Yep, that's a better way to do it.

VB6 pops up a dialogue asking if you want help, no I bloody don't, I just want to move two lines up to cut and past a variable name :slight_smile:


Rob

The point's are all well taken. I am at about 3rd grade (in school) as far as learning the language and what I learn I would like to apply to other development boards later.
So I am interested in anything that will accelerate my education. In 3 month's I have learned? how to interface and return data from several different devices. I think (with a lot of help) I have a stable routine to return local time and date from a GPS receiver, another for a BMP085 for temp and Baro data and how, more or less to use 3 different display devices to display data from these "routines".
Progress and fair progress at that. there are 3 more devices and some radio's that I need/want to do.
The issue for me is that once I find a sketch that is 'close' to what I need (or think I do) I can "Fix" it... usually through trial and error and make it work. Once in a while I can find an example in the playground, the "Examples" in the IDE or the reference section... and both by example and question here in the forum.
I do spend about 3 times as much time teaching and talking as I do learning (a lesson there?).
However for the most part what I know is more a collection of things "Not" to do, rather than a good and clear understanding of how each piece of a sketch works and I frankly think that I would need several hours to implement a "Blink without delay" sketch without the example section.
I am trying to understand pointers and although I can follow most of it on paper I doubt sincerely that I could create a sketch to write my name on a serial monitor...
I totally have problems with interrupts especially when they don't work right. I know what they are and why they are used from all sides, I believe. That knowledge doesn't however let me use them effectively, under control... My little GPS clock uses an interrupt routine called by serial data available... in the middle of writing the current "Good data to the display.
I can "follow" after a sort most of what I read though a statement with 3 conditional operators leaves me with too many ?'s
Learning by the bits and pieces method is the way I have learned all my life... Having said that I must also say that there are many holes in my education and the only way I can think to avoid the same sort of holes is a rigorous course of study and therein comes another issue. There isn't a "collected" book or tutorial that will take me from hello world to being able to write a 200k program for a Mega. If and when I "Learn' enough language for the Arduino to do that "Sketch" how much will be really usable in the larger world when I am through. Is this the purpose of the long awaited "Duo" that I read about here....
This time spent here is supposed to be my retirement and I find myself working as hard if not harder now as when I retired.
The 'stuff'. I have been grousing about is mostly the reason why I am curious about other environments to write and program the Arduino.
Paul you said "That all depends on whether you think the IDE needs improvement."... no not really though I would like line numbers because sometimes finding compiler error messages is hard since I misplaced my ouija board and I won't repeat what my crystal ball told me to do with the questions...
Oh Yeah Even with a BIG monitor I have real issues with my old eyes and the font serif font used in the IDE... So Poor little ME. (Now is whether I wonder If I should post this thing or forget I asked???), Oh Yeah... Doctor Serial... Nick. IMO

Doc

If and when I "Learn' enough language for the Arduino to do that "Sketch" how much will be really usable in the larger world when I am through.

Any time spent learning C/C++ is well spent, the knowledge (and most or even all of the code) is portable to just about every platform known to man these days.

As for using the VS plugin, I tried the first release and it worked out of the box, since then I believe it's got better. Personally I don't know how anyone can use the Arduino IDE for anything more that a 100-line program or a quick syntax check on a forum post, although I know many (most?) people are happy with it.

Once you've used a real IDE there's no going back IMO.


Rob

This was my intent. I have no intent to indicate that in any way am I ungrateful for the work as a whole. The IDE is a little quirky but I've paid hundreds of dollars for software that didn't do as much, as well as this IDE does. There are however some small things that could be better. As I pointed out I would love to change the font to a non serif type and to have line numbers.
Perhaps a little history is in order here. I started writing code with Quick Basic (PDS 7.1) early in my engineering career. I learned the '51 instruction set well enough to fix some code we shopped out. Later I went to the Pic and I used Parallax's Spasm because it was so similar to what I already knew and then I changed over to the Microchip IDE and developed some code for a PIC16C54 which got moved to a '57 (Gawd Awful chip with banked memory) C compilers were Very expensive and didn't work with the cheap small Proc's I needed for the job and they were even then notorious for producing somewhat bloated code compared to the assembler.
My point (finally) is that I learn best and fastest when I use the best tools around.
There are there are boundaries associated with both the chip and the code. There is a whole big part of C++ that I can never learn on an Arduino and this is my interest in code studio and the Arduino plugin. I intend to learn the boundaries as well as C++ I hope to graduate in both directions, Embedded controllers and Windows/Linux applications.
I am not going to be able to do that if I am restricted to the Arduino environment. This is my interest in the Visual Studio program. I can Study C++ in both environments in an easier, more complete manner, I feel.In the short 6 month's since March of this year I have a working GPS clock, a BMP085 Barometer and a working DHT22 humidity sensor, this from a cold start with C++. I follow the General Electronics section and contribute what I can, when I can and avidly read this section. The thread on Malloc was interesting as well as several others.
I've learned a lot but I need to learn more. I hope soon to be able to follow Prata's C++ Primer 6 on computer as well as in print and begin to make sense of this thing with the help of this forum...

Doc

This time spent here is supposed to be my retirement and I find myself working as hard if not harder now as when I retired

I'm short before retirement, and I fear my wife will be very disappointed when she finds out that I'm looking forward spending my "spare" time here and with that useless piece of programmable electronics.

If you want to promote to 4th grade, and got VisualStudio already, sure, give it a serious try.
There will be more for you than just changing the font size.

Docedison:
There is a whole big part of C++ that I can never learn on an Arduino and this is my interest in code studio and the Arduino plugin.

I don't get this bit. The Arduino IDE does not limit your use of C++.

I don't personally think the IDE limits you. I've used Visual Studio in the past for my fairly extensive C++ development, and for programs that are, like, over 3 Mb in size, yes you need good organization.

But for 32 Kb of code? Not so certain that the IDE limits you there. The IDE is basically a text editor. It doesn't really add or remove from the underlying compiler which is the avr-gcc compiler.

I don't think the font, the font size, or the colour of the text is really the issue standing between you and a nice working project.