esp8266:   ECLIPSE vs. VISUALMICRO vs. PLATformIO   SLUGFEST!!! - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: frogblender
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 04:22:16 am
content: So... after reaching the logical conclusion that the Arduino IDE sux giant tants, we are left with:1. Eclipse (Sloeber or the other one?)2. VisualMicro (visual studio plugin)3. PlatformIOWe are talking projects bigger than blinky, with 10 or more .cpp files, plus libraries.What do yous use?According to the "guy with swiss accent", platformIO is winning (Tasmota being an example, for all you ACmains relay fanboys), but platformIO's gui (aka "visual studio code") is hurting, compared to the other two.I tried Eclipse with the non-sloeber plugin (the "Eclipse C++ IDE for Arduino 3.0"), and only got endless streams of errors for my 6 hours of labor.Opinions appreciated.

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 05:32:07 am
content: I've used most of them. VSCode+PlatformIO beats them all (for micro development). It's all I use now. Not sure what you mean by PlatformIO's GUI hurting.Eclipse is great for Java work, but is highly bloated for micro work and I could never get Sloeber to work well. Full Visual Studio is bloated as well, and I only begrudgingly use it when I must work in C#, which is seldom thankfully.

author: frogblender
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 05:40:44 am
content: Quote from: Veteran68 on January 08, 2020, 05:32:07 amI have a 3-display setup; it is a headache getting multiple files displayed at once, and I always seem to be twiddling to align the windows to the monitors. And I prob haven't used it enough to declare it "hurting".

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 04:20:28 pm
content: Quote from: frogblender on January 08, 2020, 05:40:44 amI have a 3-display setup as well. My development workflow is probably different than yours, but I've not experienced what you describe. You can easily have multiple VSCode windows open, and you can split windows easily, so not sure I understand the issue. But as an old Software Engineer I know how religious we coders can be about our favorite editors and workflows, and how hard it can be to change.

author: Harjit
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 11:08:58 pm
content: Can you elaborate on using VSCode + Platform.IO? What capabilities is Platform.IO providing?FWIW, I've been using Qt Creator and like the code colorization it does and that it uses CMake which I also use to build the code...

author: Veteran68
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 08, 2020, 11:52:46 pm
content: Platform.IO incorporates editing, compiling, loading, and hardware debugging of many microcontrollers. It includes a serial console, and supports many micro frameworks like Arduino and ESP-IDF. Supports all the usual Atmel, ESP, and STM micros just to name a few. Using VSCode and other extensions you get full Intellisense-type code completion, syntax highlighting, and other advanced editing features. Arduino IDE is a toy by comparison. It's also multi-platform, supporting Windows, Linux, and macOS.Sublime Text has been my go-to programmer's editor for years now, and I still use it, but I've found myself transitioning more and more to VSCode for almost everything now.I've used Qt Creator for Qt C++ development but it's way too heavy and bloated compared to VSCode or Sublime, and lacks many of their features.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 09, 2020, 12:31:33 am
content: Quote from: frogblender on January 08, 2020, 04:22:16 amLooks like you missed the best (and free) one:- VS Code (the free and open source version of Visual Studio, by Microsoft) +- Arduino (VS Code extension, by Microsoft) +- C++ Intellisense (VS Code extension, by austin)That's what I settled for, after trying too many, including the ones you mentioned.