Hey there, I haven't asked a question here in a while, but this has been on my mind for a while, I've tried researching off and on to see if any solution has been found... but people online have different projects, different needs, which don't seem to directly solve this question. Scroll to the bottom for a summarized version [TLDR] .
I wasn't sure what category this topic belongs in, so I selected the most 'relevant' - Programming. This isn't to do solely in Arduino IDE programming (or at all), instead what I'd like to do is create a simple, or complex GUI Windows application that has input fields which convert to variables, these variables will take their spot as strings in a pre-programmed and set-up Arduino IDE code file with proper timings and all. When saved, I'd like this program to write to a Leonardo board, auto-select port, etc. - Basically, what Arduino IDE does, but... specific for my board, and code requirements. That way, I don't need to save backups of my code, I can host and exe download file for this program whenever I need to 'recover' the code. Of course it would be a lighter-weight application as it doesn't need to store examples and other boards, just Arduino Leonardo, and my pre-programmed sketch. Is there any possible way to achieve this? The code I've written doesn't need to change, just the specified strings within to suit my needs at a time. For example, copy & pasting across devices; plug Leonardo in, insert text, click save, unplug, and plug into a different PC. Ever-changing needs, and it would be clunky to use Arduino IDE every time I'd like to achieve this. Lugging the code on a flash drive with the portable Arduino app - not entirely helpful. It's not intuitive, and I can't share my project easily with others as... it's not intuitive without a specialized program.
TLDR; Is there any way I could reasonably create a lightweight version of Arduino IDE with essentially just a save button and a text field, and have it upload my pre-programmed sketch to an Arduino Leonardo, all in a GUI-type Windows application? (Probably going to be Java, but I'd probably adapt to anything that would work for this...)
If the solution is to build my own Leonardo-like PCB, not Arduino to avoid interfacing with the IDE, I'd love some pointers on where to start with that.
Thanks!