Is there any method to sort the boards in the listing under the Tools/Board ?
Now there is about zillion boards in a list which is running fast by your eyes.
Alphabetical sorting helps finding the right board.
Also the list of examples needs some kind of rethinking,
You got to go through the programs one-by-one to find the code you need. And the list works just awfull.
And then some of the examples are written so that you got to be a specialist to understand how the program has been designated to be used and in what kind of board. Totally useless with no descriptive comments.
At least there should be comments in the beginning telling the date of build, processor type, external devices and the version of IDE used in testing.
The available lists depend on which cores you have installed. Most core lists are quite acceptable. The main culprit, to me, seems to be the ESP32 core. It currently sits at 335 with version 3.1.1 and increases with each new version upgrade. That boarders on the absurd.
Even an alphabetic listing, though it would help, will be a problem since there seems to be no logic to the board naming in the lists. Another problem is there is no search so you are left to scan for what you may want.
I created a "board.local.txt" file which removes all from the list, leaving about 4 which I use. The problem is with every update a new lot are added and the list needs updating.
I do not think Arduino can do much (apart from adding a search) to help, the industry is just as guilty.
They are sub-divided into core installations.(which btw are sorted alphabetically) For every core there is a boards.txt file which has all the menu options for every board that is included in that core. You can modify that file by shifting the menu entries for the boards that you use a lot to places that you can more easily find them.
And IDE 2 keeps prompting you to update stuff, but apparently you can turn that off.
I actually have some cores in my sketchbook folder which are manually installed but that is a different matter.
Ideally i would even want just a list of recently selected boards. That would really simplify my workflow.
I have updates turned off so no prompts. I do however tend to manually update a core, if an update is available, when I start a new project (to avoid backward compatibility issues).
I am using IDE 2. Could you please explain how I do a search when selecting an ESP32 board from the Tools>Board list?
Most of my boards are custom so no board name to select. I use MiniCore amongst other. Entering "minicore" in the search lists all the available processor options and highlights the current selection with a tick. Same for megaTinyCore and other.
You might be interested to know that you can also access the examples of the libraries you installed via Library Manager through the Library Manager interface. Library Manager has a search capability so you will be able to find the examples for a given library without a lot of searching through a long list as is the case for the File > Examples menu if you have a lot of libraries installed:
Select Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries... from the Arduino IDE menus to open the "Library Manager" view in the left side panel.
Select "Installed" from the "Type" menu. ⓘ This step is not mandatory, but it ensures that your search results won't be cluttered by libraries that you don't have installed. Since examples are only available (and useful) for the installed libraries, we aren't interested in non-installed libraries for this specific use case.
Type a search query in the "Filter your search..." field.
Scroll down through the list of libraries until you find the library for which you want to open an example. Hover the mouse pointer over that library entry.
A ●●● icon will appear at the top right corner of the entry.
Click the ●●● icon.
A menu will open.
Select the example you want to open from the "Examples" submenu.
The example will open in Arduino IDE.
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