Well, this is fun. Working exclusively inside of AS6 with the addition of Visual Micro: http://www.visualmicro.com/
In one window I have a spectrum analyzer loaded on an Uno spitting out data to the serial terminal. In the other I have my POVpoi code loaded with breakpoints. I can write, compile, and upload straight from this. Neat! I did not have to do any magic to make it work either, just install Visual Micro and it takes care of everything when you first launch AS6. I have it configured to be able to use both Arduino IDEs 1.0.x and 1.5.x, as well as the Teensy Loader.
Right, why did I put this here? Well, because I can open the built-in IO View and monitor pin statuses on a step-by-step basis. That was my main reason initially to doing this: I needed to know what the spectrum sketch was doing when it wasn’t working. That’s when I realized the author didn’t follow the datasheet correctly and I rewrote the thing.
On something like FastLED, while I haven’t quite figured out yet what benefits this gives, and this is true for any code, I am able to use breakpoints in my own code to monitor the various errors and statuses at any given point in the full code. I uploaded a third image showing the IO view window.
Also, subsequent (re)compiles goes a lot faster because it’s only doing those files that changed, unlike the Arduino IDE which recompiles everything every single time. One of my bigger pet peeves with the Arduino IDE.
This looks like a good addon for AS6, I’ll have to take a look-see. I have used AS6 for ages. As you say a much better ‘make’ system. Took a while for me to get all the settings and libraries matching the Arduino IDE. But once there, much better results and integration. If you don’t quite get the settings to match, you do get some weird results. Code optimisations being one. Code debugging is oh-so useful.
Yep. But with Visual Micro, you don’t have to deal with settings, paths, or anything else. It takes care of all of it for you. Just tell it where your IDE is installed and where you’re saving your sketches.