Generate, compile and upload programming code to any compatible Arduino board for testing and subsequent modification or adjustment. Uno, Nano, Mega, Esplora, Ethernet, Fio, Pro or Pro Mini, as well as LilyPad models of Arduino boards are accessible.
Arduino is a rich Integrated Development Editor that comes packed with numerous features that allow users to write, compile, and upload their code. With this IDE you can search which board you are using and which libraries you want to link and the program will do the rest.
The program's GUI is quite catchy, thanks to the well-chosen theme colors and the nicely-crafted button icons. Moreover, it has various themes to choose from along with other few interesting customizations options.
What makes Arduino a powerful IDE is the wide support for Arduino boards, such as Esplora, Fio, LilyPad Arduino, Arduino Uno or Nano. Besides that, it offers features like syntax highlighting, brace matching, and automatic indentation.
The supported programming languages are C and C++, so the software will mainly be used by those who understand these languages. It can be used by programmers who know other languages and who are keen to learn C and C++ syntaxes, but it's not suited for novices with no programming knowledge.
Arduino's environment includes built-in libraries, such as Firmata, GSM, Servo, EEPROM or WiFI, but it also offers the possibility of adding one of your own.
The only discovered cons were the program slow loading time and the fact that it lacks a built-in debugger. Despite those cons, Arduino is a program that makes programming language easy to learn and modify, and that, overall, delivers what you expect.
v2.1 [Apr 20, 2023]
Added:
- Allow leading underscore in sketch filenames.
- Open library examples from Library Manager.
- Pull and Push icons on editor toolbar when Cloud sketch is open.
- Use icons to indicate pulled state of Cloud sketches in sketchbook list.
- Show "[Cloud]" indicator in title of windows with Cloud sketch open.
- Support pushing local sketches to Arduino Cloud.
Changed:
- Base Boards/Library Manager button text on library installation state.
- Make Boards/Library Manager uninstall interface easier to find.
- Default Boards/Library Manager version menu selection to latest.
- Improve performance of Library Manager search.
- Refocus Serial Monitor after verify/upload.
- Indicate theme type in Preferences menu.
- Update Arduino CLI dependency to 0.32.2.
Removed:
- Don't offer deprecated themes in Preferences dialog.
Fixed:
- Fix Sketchbook view scroll position reverting when selected item scrolled off screen.
- Fix corruption of multibyte characters in pulled Cloud sketch.
- Fix IDE crash when pushing Cloud sketch.
- Fix incomplete scroll in Serial Monitor after autoscroll enabled.
- Fix Serial Monitor autoscroll not done for content received when view not in focus.
- Fix incomplete JSONC support for settings.json.
- Fix startup fails when arduino.cli.daemon.debug setting enabled.
- Fix Library Manager version menu change after closure of dependencies installation dialog.
- Fix Boards/Library Manager entry clipping.
- Don't offer installation of already installed release in Boards/Library Manager.
- Focus the search field when Boards/Library Manager is opened.
- Support using debugger with boards platforms installed under non-default data directory location.
- Fix editor cursor randomly jumping to beginning of line.
- Fix duplicated editor tabs.
- Focus button in Sketchbook view instead of view container.
- Show error when monitor process creation fails.
- Always update themeId settings after theme change.
- Use appropriate location for manual extension installation folder.
- Always add #include directive for arduino_secrets.h when pulling Cloud sketches with secrets.
