Need assist with error message

Projects Programming
1

I am doing my first Arduino project, and I decided to do my first project from an instruction, just to get the lay of the land, before learning to write my own sketches. I have the book "Programming Arduino Getting Started with Sketches" on the way from Amazon.

In the meantime, I ran into a problem with my first project, which is an automated cat feeder project on Instructables.com, here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/RFID-pet-feeder/?ALLSTEPS

The author offers a few sketches for testing various systems, prior to final assembly. I've run 4 of the sketches successfully, so I'm past the hurdles of establishing communication to the Arduino.

I've run into a problem with the fifth sketch, for testing the RFID module. I was able to see in the sketch that the NewSoftSerial library was needed, so I got plopped into the library folder. The sketch can be viewed here:
http://www.writtensound.com/arduino/rfid2.pde

With all that, I ran into errors in running that fifth sketch during compilation, and I need help translating what the error message means. Here's a copy/paste of the error message:

In file included from RDID_2.cpp:1:
C:\Program Files\arduino-1.0.1\libraries\NewSoftSerial/NewSoftSerial.h:71: error: conflicting return type specified for 'virtual void NewSoftSerial::write(uint8_t)'
C:\Program Files\arduino-1.0.1\hardware\arduino\cores\arduino/Print.h:48: error: overriding 'virtual size_t Print::write(uint8_t)'

I'd appreciate any help with this.

2

With Arduino 1.0 and 1.0.1 use SoftwareSerial instead of NewSoftSerial. Just do the text substitution in your sketch.

3

Thanks, you got me past that glitch!
Am I using an old version of the Arduino software?

4

You have an old NewSoftSerial library installed. The older code used it and it's not compatible with 1.0. There may be an upgrade that works with 1.0 but you don't need it since SoftwareSerial is included in 1.0.

5

There may be an upgrade that works with 1.0 but you don't need it since SoftwareSerial is included in 1.0.

SoftwareSerial IS NewSoftSerial updated for 1.0 and renamed. It replaces the obsolete SoftwareSerial that existed in older versions of the IDE, for which NewSoftSerial was developed as a better alternative.