This is a little something I have been working on and is now almost fully functional
It is a compiled, cross platform (Mac, Win, Linux) helper program that is multilingual, instructs how to connect Pokitto and allows copying of binaries to Pokitto using exactly the same interface on Windows, Mac and Linux
@mhughson : I have an idea to extend this tool in such a way that it is able to display a sort of a “cover flow” like apple itunes. In that way you do not have to navigate to a webpage: this will pull them from a repository that is online
@FManga and @Hanski , I intend to support local POP files next
Is that pop thing will be used for the old loader or it’s for the new one? Also does that mean that the new loader now works with all SD cards? I still can’t use it with the current version of the new loader.
Yep, reflashing on GNU/Linux ain’t that easy, hopefully this will help the common Linux folk.
Would it be too difficult, at some point in the future, to create a multiplatform all-in-one tool for programming, debugging and flashing? Arduino IDE for Pokitto basically. I don’t fancy all-in-ones myself, but I’ve seen the IDE as a big advantage of Arduino, it just helps so much the beginners jump right in. I imagine taking existing things – an editor, compiler, debugger, emulator, … – and gluing them together into one package – maybe even a portable one, with no installation, just download and run.
I can’t see any obstacles in making it portable. I think Arduino IDE has a download and run version as well.
Anyway, the big, general IDEs need to be installed to integrate with the system paths and config and what not. This would have all it needs packed with it, since it would be Pokitto only. We’d just have to make three slightly different packages for each major OS. The GUI could be in some multiplatform lang, just pack different compiler binaries for each OS.
The IDE’s an exceptional case, it’s not really a proper IDE - it’s got less text editing features than Notepad++.
Most people I know end up scrapping the Arduino IDE in favour of something better the moment they discover the ‘use external editor’ button, or find out about the various Arduino plugins available for better IDEs/text editors.
I think we’d be better off focusing on the VSCode + PlatformIO setup - streamlining it, writing some better tutorials/documentation, getting the simulator working with it or integrating the emulator.
(One alternative is to cut out PlatformIO and just have a single VSCode extension, but that would cause issues for the people who are currently using Atom+PlatformIO and we’d have to find a new library manager.)
EDIT: I gotta admit. Being able to press “build” once and I have a win / mac / ubuntu sitting side by side, and each gets a new binary through dropbox … its kinda nice