Alternative Microcomputer Development Environments.


I just ran across this free IDE that one more experienced coding author found to be more complete than Arduino's IDE.  Platformio, besides being adaptable to Ardunio format code, also supports 550+ embedded boards, 25+ development platforms, 15+ frameworks.   Arduino and ARM mbed compatible.

Platformio is built on top of GitHub's Atom and Microsoft's Visual Studio Code.

Here's a how to article.
 PlatformIO IDE for Arduino on Windows an extension for Visual Studio Code (VS Code) or Atom Editor.   Comes in a Free Forever version.

(Platformio also runs on Macs and Linux,  I am have not looked into setting up Arduino on these systems.)



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mbed.com a site operated by the ARM processor designers, targets Internet of Things development, they an extensive database of processor board and sensor peripheral data and drivers.  mbed.com also has an online IDE where you can write code without downloading anything, it's closer to a professional IDE than the limited Arduino IDE.  It worked for me compiling a couple of examples for the BBC Micro.bit.




the mbed site also features Mbed OS, an open-source operating system for platforms using Arm microcontrollers designed specifically for Internet of Things (IoT) devices: it provides an abstraction layer for the microcontrollers it runs on, enabling you to write more portable, hardware independent code.


The Mbed site is not a bad place to research Boards, Modules and Components, you can find lots of specs and drivers.













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