Returning to Arduino a sad experience

Stepped away for awhile with other things. Came back and found that Arduino has changed dramatically. For the better....not looking like it.

Firstly, you appeared to have teamed up with Microsoft, and as I attempt to get the latest editor, I am directed to the Microsoft store for an APP, not a free-standing excellent editor as in the past, but now the newest thing " an App".

And guess what, in my Windows 10 environment I attempt to "Get" and in true Microsoft fashion, the screen flashes and nothing happens...no error message....no hint as to if it is working or not. In true Microsoft fashion.

So I guess I gotta try it with the web editor. Whats the first thing I should do, download a sample (proven code) and see if it works. Well, my TFT screen is still hooked up to my MEGA from last time I coded....lets try that. Oh look, the TFT library is RETIRED...more good news.

Well, the BLINK sample works....that's something.

Now...is Arduino worth continuing with or is it time to move to raspberry Pi.

PS

Yes, I'm venting. I'm pissed that a product that was black and white and excellent to work with, has gone to the next level and now has 256 shades of grey. And is linked to Microsoft who is probably giving them all this great business advice.

Titanium69:
Firstly, you appeared to have teamed up with Microsoft, and as I attempt to get the latest editor, I am directed to the Microsoft store for an APP, not a free-standing excellent editor as in the past, but now the newest thing " an App".

The Windows App is only an option. If you want to use the standard IDE you're welcome to do so. Just click either the "Windows Installer, for Windows XP and up" or the "Windows ZIP file for non admin install" links on the download page.

Titanium69:
And guess what, in my Windows 10 environment I attempt to "Get" and in true Microsoft fashion, the screen flashes and nothing happens...no error message....no hint as to if it is working or not. In true Microsoft fashion.

I can't help there since I would have never used a Windows app and have no plans to do so. Maybe someone else can provide advice there but it sounds like you would prefer not to use the app version of the IDE anyway.

Titanium69:
Oh look, the TFT library is RETIRED...more good news.

It's really no loss. If you check the source of that library you'll see it's just a half-assed wrapper around this Adafruit library:

Arduino has only ever retired maybe two or three libraries. The libraries are still there for you to use if you like but they are just not being actively developed. These are open source libraries that anyone is free to improve upon.

Titanium69:
Yes, I'm venting. I'm pissed that a product that was black and white and excellent to work with, has gone to the next level and now has 256 shades of grey. And is linked to Microsoft who is probably giving them all this great business advice.

Take a deep breath and stop jumping so quickly to conclusions. There may be some areas of legitimate criticism but you haven't raised any. I think once you start using the regular IDE you'll find there have been some significant improvements since you last used it.

Titanium69:
Firstly, you appeared to have teamed up with Microsoft, and as I attempt to get the latest editor, I am directed to the Microsoft store for an APP, not a free-standing excellent editor as in the past, but now the newest thing " an App".

And guess what, in my Windows 10 environment

The first paragraphs seems a strange complaint from someone who (according to the second paragraph) had himself already teamed up with Microsoft :slight_smile:

Choose Linux

...R

Now...is Arduino worth continuing with or is it time to move to raspberry Pi.

The latest version of the standalone IDE runs fine on a Raspberry Pi. The Linux Intel/AMD version works fine on Ubuntu Linux (and many similar distros) as well. I see no lack of commitment to Linux as an Arduino development platform.

The Arduino IDE is a Java program. It should work on any operating system that supports the JVM

...R

So of the MULTIPLE IDE choices you looked at the win 10 version first ! OK I can understand that but I do know from perusing the forums that it is not the best choice....But thats me digging before delving...

Teams up with MS ? Well sort of as they had an affiliation for quite a long time when you look into it.
However that means nothing as they have also teamed up with some other suppliers too. Now is that a bad thing ? IMHO no as it means they are not reliant on just ATMEL but can introduce some more lines and I have to say the MKR series is showing the way to go along with some other better form factor boards.
That should make it a lot easier for noobs with breadboards and such.

Ah CREATE WEB EDITOR...Well clearly you didn't notice the plethora of options for TFT and the ability to upload your own too ! And best of all it also supports CLONES out of the box and a few other party tricks. Sure it doesnt have all the bells and whistles the desktop does but it has a hell of a lot going for it in other areas that people also ask for to be integrated into the desktop. Oh and it spawned the Chromebook version too to be able to include a whole new batch of noobs ...Wait it also went EDU as well to take on more schools so it cant be all bad.

OMG you seem to have missed the new cloud base system that covers RASPI and a few other NON ARDUINO boards...

Lots more things in the pipeline too.

Yes it has shades of grey now but still beats the heart of Arduino...It is developing as anything should if it needs to move ahead...Gone are the days of the MODEL "T" available in any colour so long as its black. so welcome back and take your time to explore whats on offer !

ballscrewbob:
Yes it has shades of grey now

I never read that book. It seemed a bit too tame for my liking. :slight_smile:

...R

Titanium69:
Oh look, the TFT library is RETIRED...more good news.

I'm curious about this. Where did it say TFT library is retired? I just looked at the library in the Arduino Web Editor and regular IDE and I don't see anything about it being retired either place.