Arduino newbie

Helo!

I have used atmega128 with stk500 for a lego line follower robot,But now im starting a project to make a wireless water well level sensor with ultrasonic sensor and zigbee.
I am now trying to find out which microcontroller to use,and Arduino seems realy intresting since its so compact and that it has so many shields.

My queastion is:
whats the difference in programming "normal" atmega microcontrollers And arduino?Can i just program it as other atmegas or Do i have to use special arduino codes?

thanks!

Take a look at some of the samples. The IDE that comes with the Arduino uses a dialect of C called "wiring" (I think?)

In any case, it's standard C minus some headers and the code:
int main() { setup(); for (; loop() }

This is passed to avr-gcc.

tl;dr I don't think there's any difference. They provide a somewhat simplified environment but I don't think you have to use it.

int main() { setup(); for (;;) loop() }

sp.int main() { init (); setup(); for (;;) loop(); }

According to
...\arduino-0018\hardware\arduino\cores\arduino

it´s

#include <WProgram.h>

int main(void)
{
      init();

      setup();
    
      for (;;)
            loop();
        
      return 0;
}

Isn´t it?