Most of the higher level programming tools such as eclipse and netbeans for Java, visual studio for c#, c++ etc. uses a very handy predictive tool that brings up a list of options of what you might want to be typing and narrows down the list as you type, and then can select what you want to type..
I find this very helpful when it comes to calling methods of objects as you cant always remember all the methods of all the objects so it help to see what the object can do..
I think that this should not be too hard to implement into the arduino software but would make a huge difference in rapid coding and error avoidance.. also would be very handy for finding quickly finding out what things can be done without having to look at the reference page..
I think that this should not be too hard to implement into the arduino software
The Arduino IDE is open source. The source code is available. Let us know when you have something for us to test. Then, you'll know how hard this is to implement and keep up to date.
Hehehe.. I'm not much a hard core programmer, but will give it a shot and see if I can figure out something...
I was hoping that the program can just use the keyword files included in the library files to open up a drop-down box that would show you what the object can do at least..
thank you for taking up that task. It makes you stand out above all the whiners who only complain about missing features that shouldn't be hard to implement but not add them.
Thanks Korman, but I'm afraid that I'm probably going to fall into the category of whiners who only complain cause it might take me years before I can get up to the level of programming that is required.. :-[
I think the greater problem is that if you really wanted this in the Arduino IDE - you would need to add it to the Processing IDE first, as the Arduino IDE is based on it. If you make a change only to the Arduino IDE and don't backport those changes to the Processing IDE (and/or they don't accept the diffs), then the next version of the Arduino IDE that comes out will overwrite those changes or have them missing.
Essentially, the Arduino IDE is a fork of the Processing IDE, and (from what I understand - maybe I am wrong), as the Processing IDE is updated, those changes get "rolled into" the Arduino IDE fork (not sure if all changes do, or only some).
Really - what needs to be done is a complete fork/breakaway from the Processing IDE - keep it in Java (for cross-platform capability), keep it simple like it is - but quit relying on the Processing folks work and go at a separate fork instead...
Really - what needs to be done is a complete fork/breakaway from the Processing IDE - keep it in Java (for cross-platform capability), keep it simple like it is - but quit relying on the Processing folks work and go at a separate fork instead...
Agreed. We just need a new arduino IDE which actually implements all the suggestions made. Some good ideas suggested a year or so back still do not seem to have appeared.
Well I've had some experience in the past with programming micro-controllers using winAvr and just browsing through some of the Arduino file I found a lot of libraries, so my understanding of Arduino is that they took the processing platform + winAvr + a whole bunch of libraries with very neat and easy to use functions..
In order to "rewrite" the Arduino program, it would require t write the platform, which would be quite an epic task...
Please to inform me if I'm wrong with any of my assumptions.
spl@rboi made a good point with using programmers notepad instead of the arduino program to write the code, he also wrote an arduino scheme for the programmers notepad which can be quite handy..
Still they are too basic.. all they are using is a basic progammers notepad such as scintilla text editor or something and making it so that it can program the micro controllers, the autocomplete function is still just as primitive as the one used in programmers notepad provided with winAvr..
For the autocomplete to be any good it needs to see that you have typed in for example "Serial." and bring up a list that this specific object can do such as "print, println...."
It was just an idea that I had that would make it really stand out from the rest of programming programs that is out there so far...
People have gotten Ardunio to work within eclipse. I don't know whether they got all the completion stuff working ("it shouldn't be hard" (it's just C/C++, after all.))
I have to admit that the autocomplete stuff is very useful when I'm programming in an environment where I don't know what I'm doing (visual basic for PCs, for example!)
Hi there with a little effort you can have both eclipse and netbeans (c/c++ versions for both) to work with arduino libraries.
You can also upload directly to the arduino ( i hadn't test it yet thow )
I have just setup netbeans and it is working perfectly
