MODERATOR EDIT This topic has turned into a question about IDE 2.x so has been moved to that category
I am not sure how up to date I am but I have version 1.8.9
I would like to ask about the IDE:
1 - Different projects use different boards.
It would be nice if there is/was a way that I could tell the IDE which board this project is for.
eg: Uno, ESP32, Nano, etc.
That way if I load a project one day then another day load another one which uses a different board type I don't have to keep changing the IDE settings.
2 - Split screens.
I have recently been shown the benefit of having only one tab for your code.
But I have also seen great advantages of having multiple tabs.
(But I said split screens)
So as a compromise:
Allowing the screen to be split.
So I can see one part of the code in/on the top half of the screen, and a different part of the code on the bottom half.
3 - Version tracking. (LOCAL)
I know people use things like GIT or other things that somehow magically could do this. (I don't know)
But I have this habit that I put a version number in my code (that I also sent out the serial port) to help me know which version is running.
It would be handy if when I SAVE AS the version number is also updated.
Yes, I know that is my responsibility to change it, but I'm looking for a way to help with this problem.
I get it that similar to windows there is some magic where programs are installed if/when you use them.
I have the IDE (1.8.19) installed somewhere on my system.
I downloaded the ZIP file and unpacked it, went into the directory and ran the IDE - as shown on the page.
To install the Arduino IDE 2 on Linux, first download the AppImage 64 bits (X86-64) from the Arduino Software page.
Before we can launch the editor, we need to first make it an executable file. This is done by:
right-click the file,
choose Properties,
select Permissions tab,
tick the Allow executing file as program box.
But that is in a ..... bad place just now.
It is in my Downloads/arduino-ide_nightly-20231006_Linux_64bit/ directory which is not really a good place to leave/have it.
So I am stuck where it should be if I want to use if from now on.
Or should I download the new one via the "app manager" - but if I do that I'm guessing it would overwrite the existing one.
Ok, my problem.
But it is confusing to me that I can download a second IDE and have both running on the machine, but don't know where to put the second one for long term use.
Unlike Arduino IDE 1.x, Arduino IDE 2.x remembers which board and port you had selected the last time you had a given sketch open. Each time you open the sketch, it will automatically select the same board and port as you had before.
So you only need to select the board and port once unless you later want to use the sketch with a different board or port selection.
The one thing you should note is the IDE's database is keyed on the sketch path, so if you move the sketch to a different location on your hard drive externally to the IDE (rather than using "Save As..." in the IDE), the IDE will lose that board and port selection association for the sketch. But we don't often move sketches around on our hard drive like that so it's not a great hardship to have to select the board once again in the IDE the next time you open the sketch after doing so.
The Arduino IDE developers are tracking this request here:
If you have a GitHub account, you can subscribe to that issue to get notifications of any new developments related to this subject:
I think such a feature is well out of scope for the Arduino IDE project.
However, it is possible for the community to add all sorts of amazing additional capabilities to Arduino IDE 2.x by creating extensions. These extensions use the same powerful JavaScript-based framework as VS Code extensions so you can find a lot of information about how to create such extensions (as well as thousands of existing free open source extensions). So I think this is definitely something you could accomplish as a fun project.
That setting is only present in Arduino IDE 1.x. It is not necessary to put Arduino IDE 2.x into any sort of a special mode to use an external editor. Simply open your sketch in your preferred text editor and edit away. Arduino IDE 2.x will automatically recognize the changes after you save the sketch in the external text editor.
In this way, you can do all the code writing in whatever editor you prefer and use Arduino IDE only for the other tasks such as:
