OK, I haven't used SoftwareSerial for a while, but when I tried some of my old code and even the library examples I get:
Arduino: 1.8.10 (Mac OS X), Board: "Arduino Zero (Native USB Port)"
Software_Serial_Example:28:10: error: SoftwareSerial.h: No such file or directory #include <SoftwareSerial.h>
^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
compilation terminated.
exit status 1
SoftwareSerial.h: No such file or directory
This report would have more information with
"Show verbose output during compilation"
option enabled in File -> Preferences.
I thought the SoftwareSerial Library was included after 1.0. What am I doing wrong?
The Arduino IDE has a feature where libraries can be bundled with a hardware package. Those bundled libraries are only accessible when compiling for a board of that package. This is used for architecture-specific libraries (e.g., SPI, Wire), where each architecture requires a different version of the library. The SoftwareSerial library is one of these bundled libraries. You're probably used to working with boards of the Arduino AVR Boards package (e.g., Uno, Mega, Leonardo, Nano), and that package does have a bundled SoftwareSerial library. However, you are now compiling for the Zero, which is of the Arduino SAMD Board hardware package. That hardware package does not bundle a SoftwareSerial library. The developers didn't bother because the SAMD boards have multiple hardware serial ports. Hardware serial ports are superior to software serial so you should just use the hardware serial instead. If for some reason you do need to use software serial on your Zero, you can probably find a 3rd party library that will provide this.
You're welcome. I'm glad if I was able to be of assistance. It's a feature most people don't know about because it usually "just works". Even though you're using a different version of the bundled libraries from one architecture to another, that is normally not noticeable because the library authors used a standardized API as much as possible.