Arduino IDE 2.3.6 option help required

Development Tools IDE 2.x
1

Hi,

My Arduino IDE just updated to 2.3.6 about 30 minutes ago.
So I now have an issue: That thing is unusable. That stupid idiotic piece of s**t blurs the whole screen every time I type in something with the message: "Recomplying" or "Building Sketch".

In addition to this being f***ing annoying, it screws with my eyes. So my question is this: Where is the checkbox to disable this crap? I am used to working with IntelliJ IDE-s, so I would very much NOT deal with a borderline unusable IDE and would pretty much prefer to use the Arduino IDE instead of coding in IntelliJ IDEA and only pasting the code into the Arduino IDE for the final compile and upload.

Or should I just roll back to an older version? If I need to roll back to get rid of this bug, then what was the last version where autocompile was an option you could turn off?

Cheers...

2

Welcome to the forum

Where does this "Building" message appear ?

My guess would be at the bottom left of the screen.. If so then it has nothing to do with compiling the sketch but indicates that it is building the index of of variables and functions used in the sketch used by auto-complete and the right click menu

What OS are you using ?
I assume that you are aware that version 2.3.8 is available

3

Hi @tolmik. I suggest you take use a less belligerent tone in your posts on Arduino forum. I understand that you are upset, but communicating in the manner you used here is really not productive.

A range of new code-aware (AKA "IntelliSense") features such as "suggest" (code completion), "editor hover", and "go to definition" were added in Arduino IDE 2.x.

These features rely on information from a tool called a "language server" (to be specific, the open source clangd C++ language server in combination with Arduino Language Server). The language server must have a complete understanding of the sketch program (including libraries, core, and toolchain) in order to be able to provide this information. This requires it to process the source code files after each time the sketch code is changed. You will see an "indexing: ..." or "Building sketch" message at the left side of the status bar at the bottom of the Arduino IDE task bar when it is doing this.

So the appearance of the message is expected. However, the "blur the whole screen" is NOT expected. I carefully monitor the community for reports related to Arduino IDE and this is the first report I have seen of such a thing. So this seems to be very specific to your particular computer. Unfortunately I don't have a hypothesis regarding what might cause it.

As suggested by @UKHeliBob. It is definitely worth updating to the latest version of Arduino IDE, then checking to see whether the fault also occurs with that version.

If it does, in addition to specifying your operating system as requested, please tell us whether there is anything unusual about your computer or the configuration of the operating system that might possibly be relevant?

You should note that "autocompile" isn't really the best term to use for this.

But to answer your question, the code-aware features that require continuous processing of the sketch were introduced in Arduino IDE 2.x. So the last version that does not do this is Arduino IDE 1.8.19. You can download it from the "Software" page, here:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/software#:~:text=on%20GitHub.-,Legacy%20IDE%20(1.8.19),-Download%20a legacy

4

You need to step back and count to ten - you have to realise this is an issue with your installation and people will try and help , but don’t rant !

Mine installed and worked fine , as must lots of others or it would be a poor show to distribute such a dodgy version .

5

Thanks for the download link.

This is my non-belligerent tone to this question. I have been programming for about 35+ years now, and this is the first time something pissed me off so badly in such a short time.
Been a programmer as a profession since 2010, but this new IDE is just plain awful.

Well, cry me a river ;) I do not care about what it is called in the official documentation. If something compiles your code again and again after every change without you telling it to do so, then it IS automatically doing it. So at the end of the day it is an autocompile feature, as it automatically compiles code.

I am using the IDE to program my Teensy boards for my X-Plane home cockpit, so I will have to look into finding the Teensy plugin for the 1.8.19 version, and downloading that specific version from the link you provided. The new IDE is unusable in my opinion, so I will not be spending any time trying to live with it. If I can not find the download for the old Teensy IDE plugin then I will just simply stop using the IDE for code editing, as the IntelliJ IDEA is simply so much better in terms of usability than the new version...

6

Here it is:

https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_download.html#installer

7

Have we established that is what is happening ?

Please answer this question

8

Hi,

Well, yes. At this point it is pretty clear what is happening.
The "new" 2.x version of the IDE introduced a few changes.

The first one: It is now "code aware", and this new feature requires continuous processing of the sketch. What this means in reality is this: If you have an IDE window with a sketch opened, then for every major change in the code it will take a few seconds to recompile, rebuild and recheck your code. While it is doing this, the whole IDE window is blurred out, and on the bottom-left corner of the IDE you will get a message telling you that it is doing so.
Which is great for someone who is just hooking up a board to the PC and code it for fun.
It is NOT great however, when you have 2+ screens, with 2+ IDE windows opened, with 2 different codes.

Say for example: On the left screen I have my Teensy code that is the communication hub between my X-Plane Flight sim and the rest of my Atmega328 driven peripherials. And on the right screen I have my Uno code that should be running a Keyboard driver and use some kind of a communication protocol to communicate with the other board as required. Constant recompiling of the code takes up valuable time and resources, and the new version has no way to kill this crap. So this is reason 1 for downgrading, and NEVER upgrading in my lifetime again.

The second one: I noticed, that if I loose focus on an IDE window, then that window becomes blurred. Which is an issue, if you try to monitor 2 projects communicating with each other and the PC in real time. Especially, if you are like me, and like to have 2 IDE windows plus a browser with the Language reference and the GNU C++ reference opened at the same time for efficiency. The old 1.x versions never did this, and honestly if I could just find a plugin for my IntelliJ IDEA then I would ditch this IDE altogether. The only reason why I am using this IDE is due to the fact, that the Arduino language specific pin control is easier for me than a pure C++ based one.

That being told, I can not be bothered with experimenting. My preferred IDE has support for C++, and I am pretty sure I can just write a language file for the Arduino specific commands and then use my IntelliJ IDEA for writing the code and syntax checks. At this point I could program an Arduino board in Notepad++, and the only reason I need the Arduino IDE is to compile and upload the project.

Or I can just bite the bullet, and ditch everything BUT the Teensy, and go with the TI MSP430 MCU family, as their IDE is at least usable, and still uses Arduino language...

9

How many more times are you going to say that

The code is not being constantly recompiled

As has been pointed out that is not what happens to most users. If it were I would expect complaints about it. It certainly does not happen to me no matter how many IDE instances I have running

10

I have also never seen this happen with any version of the IDE. Very occasionally I have had Intellisense play catch-up, but it doesn't blur the window. An Intellisense scan of the code to highlight syntax etc is not the same as a compile.

Not seen that happen either. I have had multiple IDE windows open on multiple occasions and none of them ever go blurred.

It sounds like something unusual is happening on your computer to cause that blurring effect.

If you don't want to use the Arduino IDE, then alternatively you could do that using vscode.