Give some coolness factor to the ArduinoIDE

[lmihalkovic]

Aside from the bang-on-feature-set and quality of the board, IMHO the utterly simple approach of the supplied IDE is what made the Arduino a hit... instead of the dark-art that embedded programming has been for years, it suddenly became possible for any teenager to download a single zip and reliably get going in minutes. This is a awesome achievement!!! As time has passed, the IDE as retained the simplicity that made its success while adding capabilities.

IMHO the platform is coming to a cross-roads. The skill-set of programmers keep growing, more rapidly than before I might add, and the current IDE is approaching (some might say it passed it) a point where its minimum feature-set will not longer be enough.

This issue entry is for the purpose of referencing under a single umbrella other individual issues meant to inject a number of capabilities that will give a dose of coolness factor to the current IDE (1.6.5_r5 at the time this is started).

• fresh new Arduino Create look Modernize the look of the UI to track Arduino Create #4151 Support theme variants #4158
• code completion Provide code completion inside editor #4089
• sketch navigation/outline view Provide a sketch navigation/outline view #4083 (touching Support for sketch-local libraries #4050)
• key bindings Provide configurable key bindings #4086 (needs Cleanup the key handling code in the editor #4146)
• sketch debugger Please, add a basic debugger to IDE #4010
• global search Provide a simple global search #4077
• user defined scripts for file validation, data visualization, ... (relating to Support JavaScript based customization of the Editor #4074)
• code templates
• wizards (sketch, library)
• dedicated class-room support features
• library reference from code Provide simple library reference info directly within the IDE #4069

More practical

• library editing Support for editing library code #4085 (relating to lib manager overrides core libraries included with 3rd party boards #4064 Support multiple version of a given library #4065)
• splitting monolithic sketch into local libraries Support for sketch-local libraries #4050 (relating to lib manager overrides core libraries included with 3rd party boards #4064 Support multiple version of a given library #4065)
• better multi-tab handling (relating to Bug: EEPROM addresses after compiling changed in new Arduino Software 1.6.4 #3061 Support for sketch-local libraries #4050)
• storing board info in sketch Assigning a board to a sketch #3228

Nice to haves

• link to donation via paypal to support the development Add support for direct donations from the IDE #4147

External references:
https://groups.google.com/a/arduino.cc/d/topic/developers/KsstENd2384/discussion

[ffissore]

Thank you @lmihalkovic I'm gonna close this one as it's not really an issue but rather a collection of proposals. Please join the developers mailing list where you can share your priorities with other arduino hackers and receive their feedback and points of view

[ffissore]

Forgot to add the url https://groups.google.com/a/arduino.cc/forum/#!forum/developers

[lmihalkovic]

Yes, thanks for the pointer, I will join.

[NicoHood]

You always show screenshots of those features.
If you implemented them already, why not open a PR or at least upload the fork changes so people can recompile the IDE and try it out? Or am I missing something?

[lmihalkovic]

This is working code, with probably still half the tr() calls missing where they should be (which reminds me that I still don't know how to update the resource files). I recently got an arduino, and in the process of discovering it, I started running into pain points with the IDE. Considering the maturity of the IDE I figured I couldn't be the first one... Except for the debugger, these are small tasks requiring remarkably little work with the editor the way it is today. Having a bit of time on my hands, I decided to write code partially to test the ideas, partially to make myself more productive, partially to make others more productive (this is very subjective as it assumes that my solutions are general enough that they make sense to others).

My time for this effort is very limited to a few hours per day, and I will soon have to return to other things altogether. I work from a series of branches that I rebase against the official code. Some of the features would be moving faster with a bit of help (mostly simply question answers) from people who know the environment better than I do (for e.g. I still don't know if there is a keywords.txt for the code platform code, and only started working on .S completion tonight when I realized ASM code also works in the editor). So far I have answered more questions than even the simplest of mine have received answers (not complaining, just sharing an observation).

I have not taken the time to push my tree to my GH fork, and I am not creating PR because either takes time that this week I'd rather spend making progress. On the topic of PRs, I ran into #3484 today. It seems the work spans over the entire year 2015, with some creation date going even further back in time. Other PRs seem to have lingered for variable durations (no doubt subject to the many higher priorities of the maintainers).. I did not see an urgency to me pushing code I started to write last week. I will however post something here when I push the code (I might also save a binary distro before that)

PS: I do however very much appreciate you taking an interest is this effort. thank you.

[NicoHood]

Thanks for the answer. I really think you should share the code if you want them to fix it. Even if the patch is not ideal, they might have a simple idea to fix it another way. This helps more than just asking for those features. Also the time of the devs is limited, but trust me, they are doing the best they can. I am hoping that you features will be included to the IDE :)