Keeping up with the Joneses

Community General Discussion
1

I am not in favor to always download the latest and the greatest (?) of Arduino IDE version.
I recall in past that when you attempted to do that , you got a stern warning that some of your precious data will be destroyed / erased / mutilated etc.
In short - just make useless.

Does this still apply today ?

I do appreciate "update notes', but still like to test some stuff by myself, but safely!

Please no stupid remarks ( post your full code properly) . jokes etc.

This is a serious inquiry.

2

I am not Mr. Jones. I tend to not upgrade the minute something comes out. I like to let the dust settle and let others notice when something isn't quite right and see if they can find the solution. The very first DAY Windows 10 came out, the forum had a flood of people complaining their Arduino wouldn't work with Windows 10, driver problems, and whatever. Likewise, when OS X Mavericks came out, I didn't upgrade the same day. The forum had plenty of posts about how people couldn't use their CH340G based boards to work. Same thing applies to Arduino versions. Unless there is a particular feature you need or want, there isn't much reason to upgrade the very day an upgrade comes out. I have not had any problems upgrading and downgrading and re-installing any Arduino version I want, and I have not lost data. If I did lose data, I make backups so it's no big deal. VirtualBox is good software to use to spin up disposable virtual machines and peek into the "future," and experiment. I am running Yosemite with Arduino 1.6.6 right now.

I do think it's funny you ask for no stupid remarks and saying this is a serious inquiry. I think that paints a target and actually increases the likelihood of you getting remarks or jokes.

3

dmjlambert:
I am not Mr. Jones. I tend to not upgrade the minute something comes out. I like to let the dust settle and let others notice when something isn't quite right and see if they can find the solution. The very first DAY Windows 10 came out, the forum had a flood of people complaining their Arduino wouldn't work with Windows 10, driver problems, and whatever. Likewise, when OS X Mavericks came out, I didn't upgrade the same day. The forum had plenty of posts about how people couldn't use their CH340G based boards to work. Same thing applies to Arduino versions. Unless there is a particular feature you need or want, there isn't much reason to upgrade the very day an upgrade comes out. I have not had any problems upgrading and downgrading and re-installing any Arduino version I want, and I have not lost data. If I did lose data, I make backups so it's no big deal. VirtualBox is good software to use to spin up disposable virtual machines and peek into the "future," and experiment. I am running Yosemite with Arduino 1.6.6 right now.

I do think it's funny you ask for no stupid remarks and saying this is a serious inquiry. I think that paints a target and actually increases the likelihood of you getting remarks or jokes.

Thanks Mr. no Jones.
I am actually looking for a "promised" fix on IDE not highlighting code block - from starting bracket to ending bracket - as it used to do ( i believe 1.6.5 )
Now it does only the brackets which is not much help when the code block is bigger than the monitor can show.
I really miss it and do not want to go back since I also like "Open Recent".

As far as "no stupid remarks" , you are absolutely correct, I am poking stick into hornets nest.

But I am getting tired of this forum "god gift to humanity" arrogance which shows in so many posts , especially in replies to beginners first posts.

These obnoxious and arrogant people NEED to know such remarks are inappropriate and I have not figured out how else to do that.

So - no pain , no gain.

PS In my "gainful employment days" one of the vendors version their software using four digits.
For example "2.3.5.0".
Version ending with zero was NEVER implemented in the field. No matter how much advertisement about "latest and greatest features" marketing folks put up. Version "2.3.5.1" ( with fix patches) usually followed very soon HA HA
Some companies uncovered the ruse and promptly "version" otherwise, non version identifiable way - AKA Windows SE , Vista etc.
Than "SP" got introduced...
End of story.
Thanks for reading.
Have a good day.

4

The quality of releases is here is wildly unpredictable, probably because Arduino doesn't have the money for a proper test group. Each release either gets things working, or introduces heinous bugs that disrupt workflow and compatibility.

I've been using 1.6.5r5 and recommend that version, as 1.6.6 and 1.6.7 have been buggy. 1.6.6 added this arduino builder thing, and introduced tons of bugs associated with it, and 1.6.7 only fixed some of them.

Before 1.6.5, 1.6.4 was a bit flaky (due to the board manager stuff being new), 1.6.3 was okay, 1.6.2 was a disaster, 1.6.1/1.6.0 were marginal.

There are a few compatibility issues between 1.0.6 and 1.6.x versions (this is just what comes to mind):

  • Cores are not compatible between major versions (1.0.x vs 1.6.x ). Third party hardware support files need to be written for 1.6.x (but the installation process is easier via board manager now, you just add the URL on the settings page, and then go to boards manager and you can install the cores, like that. Of course, you can use the old manual method to install cores too (this is better for core development - I sync github repos to my hardware folder). This incompatibility was added in several steps (1.6.1, 1.6.2 and 1.6.4 all introduced additional issues here, as I discovered maintaining my core for almost-every-ATTiny (eventually I just dropped 1.0.x support)
  • 1.6.x compiler is newer. Old code that uses PROGMEM variables, but doesn't declare them as const, will not work. Variables stores in PROGMEM are constant; they must be declared as such. Simply add the const keyword to the declarations in question to fix this.
  • Delete all the Arduino15 app data if you had a 1.5.x version installed - this debris will keep 1.6.x from working.

There are a couple of others I'm forgetting atm.