More customizable IDE?

[neamerjell]

I'm using the latest Arduino IDE, and have found it lacking in only one area: it is nearly illegible at 1920x1080 resolution. I know I am one of the few Übergeeks out there who connected his computer to his 42 inch LCD TV with an HDMI cable. I must admit, once I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7, most of my readability issues disappeared. However there are a few stubborn applications that refuse to let me alter the font size of their user interface. The Arduino IDE is one of these. I currently use the Magnifier application when I have to, but it gets annoying after a while.

I like that I can change the font size and name in the preferences, but this is not what I am referring to. I'm talking about the text on the tabs, the compiler response text at the bottom, etc.

[novice]

Several settings can be changed in the file C:\Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\Arduino\preferences.txt

Have a browse through, and see if there's one there to achieve your goal.

Btw, the preferences file should only be edited while the Arduino IDE is not running.

[mowcius]

You can change the text size but that sounds pretty massive to me.

I run it on my 1600x1200 15" laptop with the smallest font size I can get away with (size 12 or it starts to look really crap) and that's fine (for me) - sometime still not enough lines on the screen to keep me happy.

42" would be crazy, perhaps sit closer

But yeah, just have a look at the preferences file, you can change loads of things.

[neamerjell]

The preferences.txt file is what I was referring to when I said I already found the font size for the code. What I want to change is the font size for the user interface (tabs, menus, compiler feedback)

[haughtonomous]

Please no! Customisation means complexity which means unexpected errors. Let's iron out all the idiosyncrasies that currently exist and get a stable IDE that 'just works' before going down that road.

Please! :-)

[neamerjell]

I can't say I disagree with your statement about just get it stable and working first. However, adding a GUI to the themes.txt file would be helpful. I finally got the interface to be readable at 1920x1080 on a 42 inch TV from about 8-10 feet away by cranking up the font size to 30 points. To do this, I needed to log into Windows 7 as administrator, edit the security settings on the file, find each occurrence of a font size and edit it manually then save the file. I needed admin rights to edit a file in the "Program Files (x86)" folder. I should not need admin rights just to change the font size on a program. Good thing this was my own computer and I am the administrator...

[frank26080115]

I can't say I disagree with your statement about just get it stable and working first. However, adding a GUI to the themes.txt file would be helpful. I finally got the interface to be readable at 1920x1080 on a 42 inch TV from about 8-10 feet away by cranking up the font size to 30 points. To do this, I needed to log into Windows 7 as administrator, edit the security settings on the file, find each occurrence of a font size and edit it manually then save the file. I needed admin rights to edit a file in the "Program Files (x86)" folder. I should not need admin rights just to change the font size on a program. Good thing this was my own computer and I am the administrator...

Wait a tick... Arduino doesn't have an installer (as far as I remember), so how did it end up in Program Files without admin rights in the first place?

[neamerjell]

That was my own <insert favorite curse here> fault. I had the brainy idea to put it there because the desktop loads slower if I have a bunch of junk on it. It turns out I shot myself in the foot for doing that.

Let this be a lesson to those people who, like me, tend to over-think things... (I don't know whether to laugh or cry at that joke)

I think my main beef is with Windows 7. I'm tempted to just make my user account into an admin account and disable UAC altogether.

[frank26080115]

I've already done that, nothing bad has happened yet. MS Security Essentials catches most threats nearly instantly, and I don't download shady files anyways. If I ever do need to run something questionable, I use a VirtualBox VM as a sandbox. I also keep periodic full backups and use online source control. If you are careful, you can run in permanent admin mode without worrying too much.

[haughtonomous]

I can't say I disagree with your statement about just get it stable and working first. However, adding a GUI to the themes.txt file would be helpful. I finally got the interface to be readable at 1920x1080 on a 42 inch TV from about 8-10 feet away by cranking up the font size to 30 points. ...

Well I can't imagine why you would want to be using the IDE on a 42" TV from 8-10 feet away, unless you're a teacher I suppose.

However, this seems ironic. Here we have a tool for writing code for a device which is by definition a hacker's paradise (a sparrow's nest of wires and components and whatever, never mind the sketches to make it all work), and you want an IDE to configure the IDE? Whatever happened to the hacking spirit? :-)

[neamerjell]

The IDE is on my computer and my computer is connected to my TV, therefore the IDE is viewed on the TV. My computer is my DVD player, Blu-Ray player, and my Arduino workstation.

I originally connected my PC to my TV for movies and games (Mass Effect 2, Spore, Need for Speed on 42" are AWESOME! My XBox is connected to it as well... Halo Reach in 42" glory...).

[graynomad]

I'm using the latest Arduino IDE, and have found it lacking in only one area:

Only one? You're easily pleased

______
Rob

[neamerjell]

Yeah, it doesn't take much to make me happy. 

[haughtonomous]

I'm using the latest Arduino IDE, and have found it lacking in only one area:

Only one? You're easily pleased

______
Rob

Only one in the context that the IDE is a simple, free tool to hack with so I don't expect or demand too much of it. If it cost me several thousand notes I would expect a superb piece of software and be grumbling a lot more. I use Visual Studio at work which meets the first criterion, and because it's so poor I grumble a whole lot more about that. No, really, I do!

[neamerjell]

My overall complaint is that, in any situation - not just programming - I should not have to "hack" the tools I use in order to get them to be suitable for my hacking - they should just work so I can get busy hacking what I intended to hack in the first place.

That's a whole lotta hacking!