drjiohnsmith:
when the Arduino IDE gets to much, the editor is already driving me crazzy, where can one go,
On my Linux system at least, the IDE has an option to use an external editor. As I've been using Gnu Emacs since at least 1986 the choice was obvious for me. While I might not suggest Emacs for newbies, there are other editors out there. It may take some time to find one that you like.
drjiohnsmith:
The 16 MHz speed is troubling, are there up grade routes available ?
Arduino has announced the Due which uses a 32-bit microprocessor at its core (Arduino uses an 8-bit microprocessor) last fall. So far it has only been seen by the public in limited demos. Maybe it will come out later this year, maybe there are production problems, or maybe it is just FUD (fear uncertainty doubt) and it was pre-announced to prevent people from switching to other platforms.
drjiohnsmith:
OK, I know I can more efficient code , etc etc, but when that runs out of steam , are there faster / compatable options
Well one traditional approach is to break up your task into several smaller tasks and have separate microprocessors do each part. However, that does increase the complexity of the programming, and some tasks are a lot harder to write in a parallel fashion.
drjiohnsmith:
The programmer, built in is great , but I'd like to use the USB on the board, do I need / can I use some other programming system than the built in USB
some pointers on what / where to read up would be appreciated.
I know there is a lot out there, and due to the age of the project and how dynamic it is, there are some contradictory routes I have already been down,
many thanks
My sense is there are a lot of different options out there, but most involve using a different system with different tradeoffs. That will take work to master the new system, but it can be doable.