Thank you for speedy response - appreciated.
..."if you are a beginner to coding in general use Mbed"... My introduction to programming was in the 1970's using assembler (Intel 4004 and 8008 processors) and throughout my working life I have had exposure to progressively 'higher' languages (Cobol, Fortran,...) and some proprietary code used in early computer assisted bio-medical research equipment (74 series logic based) but never have I been employed as a 'programmer'.
Have 'experimented' (played) with Arduino boards for a few years but recently was asked if I could develop an application to run on a micro controller (Raspberry Pi Pico). I confirmed 'proof of concept' using a Raspberry Pi SBC running Linux but developing application to run on the Pico is a new learning curve.
Considered MicroPython (seemingly MUCH friendlier) but performance and overhead when compared to C/C++ was a deciding factor.
Tried several other IDE approaches but the Arduino IDE seems to hurt my brain less...
There is an interesting discussion (short) on Github that seems to be relevant that highlights a couple of points I would never have thought about, my ignorance to blame for sure! url if interested: - Comparison of arduino-pico to MBED-OS core (app size, RAM, features, etc.) · earlephilhower/arduino-pico · Discussion #246 · GitHub
Thanks again for your feedback.