CHOOSING A NEW I.D.E. For ESP32

Community General Discussion
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Hi Guys...
I'm creating this Topic to get a question answered.
"Which I.D.E. Other than Arduino I.D.E. would be best for FreeRTOS and ESP32 for me"

This topic is going to more or less converge 2 other topics and unlike other topics similar to this, the others are people who have problems with the IDE, this one is different in the sense that ...

I'M LOOKING TO GET OPINIONS FROM PEOPLE THAT HAVE USED ALTERNATIVE IDE'S

So, Which IDE should i use.
How long is a piece of string ?
let's avoid this answer, so i'll say this

the problem it will solve is this...

I'm using Windows 7 as is another user on another topic that i'll invite here.
I'm using Arduino IDE 2.1.1 and everything is fine

The problem.... When you use Windows 7 and Upgrade to Arduino IDE 2.2.1
You will have a problem it won't run

The Solution

  • Stay on 2.1.1
  • Upgrade to Windows 10

Well, We don't want to upgrade to Windows 10, Nor should we have to for the IDE, that's ridiculous

so WHY NOT CHOOSE A DIFFERENT IDE ?

I would like the new IDE to be compatible with Arduino Dev boards should i feel the need to use them.

I would like to put focus on going in deep into the IDE and ESP32 which Multi processing, Multi Tasking and Inter Task Communications being the norm.
As i do see there being a benefit to step away from the basics of the Arduino IDE.

So let's have some opinions shall we
It would be a requirement that i want the IDE to Run on Windows 7 (not that this is my only O/S that i use) but that the post would be irrelevant if we discussed upgrade to Windows 10

so Far I have briefly explored
Espressif IDF
Platform IO with VS
Although i have heard that both are not that great, Not sure why
which is why i want to hear from a few of you

The 2 topics that this idea was mentioned on are

and

Thanks ahead of time

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I have windows 7 (64bit), the ESP IDF and Eclipse. I've done a few programs with ethernet, websockets, server side events, video and figured out how to run tasks on both ESP cores.
I've only used it with the espressif ESP32 device kit.

2 Likes
3

Just trying to install Eclipse on my Win8.1 system.

As currently installed on my system is Java 8 I decided to install Eclipse 4.16. Newer Eclipse versions require newer Java versions.

First question: Install C/C++ or embedded IDE?

I just decided to install the C/C++ IDE and the installations seems to hang. What bothers me is the hint of a Java17+ VM installation. Digging into the documentation this looks like a newer installer that requires a newer Java version. Plonk :frowning:

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Thanks Jim I'll Definitely have a play with it, I do like the C.L.I. that IDF Offers.
but i was looking for a G.U.I. Option as well.
Just didn't want to jump into anything until i got some opinions

thanks again.

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No idea, this is absolutely new Territory for me

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A year ago I ended up using platformio as that was the environment needed to get the hardware debugger working. I don't know if things are any different today.

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I found this interesting

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How did you find it a year ago ?

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I found it via this video, and also found it to be very slow. Essentially you needed to be chasing an 'impossible to find bug' otherwise the time and effort just to use it wasn't worth it.

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but i was looking for a G.U.I. Option as well.

Eclipse is the GUI

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Like @jim-p I use an older Windows version, and Win8.1 is definitely the highest version I'll ever use. If required later I'll resume my work on Linux, but not now.

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Thanks

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I don`t know about will it work on Win7, but I recommend PlatformIO. Lot of different frameworks avaliable...great free IDE imo.

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That's what I have, except I use windows 7

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Oh, i thought the ESP IDF only came with a C.L.I. Option
OK, good to know, I'll try this out

I remember long ago when i started learning SQL You had several GUI's that most went for, Personally i took to the C.L.I. , it just like them.

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As do i , i guess great minds thing alike :stuck_out_tongue:

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I Think the issues i heard about have more to do with Visual Studio and Microsoft as opposed to actual Platform IO

Question.... If you know..
Is it possible to use Platform IO without VS ? or is it a dependency
and what is even the point or benefit to using VS with PlatformIO

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Yes you can use it with Eclipse, if you think that VScode is a problem.

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I do use a Linux Distro... Zorin Linux
I find it pretty good

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I switched many years ago, I left win95 and went to Linux Mint Cinnamon, the best move I ever made with a computer. Yes all of that old hardware works just fine and it is reasonably fast, much faster then it was with windows.