We take a look at the latest Arduino IDE v2.2.1 release to see what improvements have been made that us makers can benefit from.
Once again, the Arduino team and community combined have released a new version of the integrated development environment that gives newcomers and experienced makers alike a simple, yet powerful pathway to the world of 8-bit and 32-bit microcontrollers.
Much work has been done to smooth out previous bugs and enhance existing features that have been useful over time.
As this is an incremental update, the bugs fixed may seem trivial, however, are important for usability, including the missing translations for Turkish and Russian, along with uploading SSL root certificates for the Uno R4 with WiFi board.
However, this new version 2.2.1 builds on the 2.2 release, with some very useful features. One of these is the customisable auto-formatter. For lovers of writing code rapidly without thought to formatting, then selecting Edit > Auto Format to clean up the text – will now be pleased to know the method of automatic formatting can now be set to suit your own needs.
The custom configuration of the auto formatter can be set to cover all sketches opened in the editor or set to be specific to one individual sketch.
The settings are updated with Clang-Format - a widely used C++ code formatting tool. Instructions for this can be found from the Arduino IDE download link below.
Another useful feature is the new “Light High Contrast” theme which can be selected from the File > Preferences menu option in the IDE.
This switches the view to a simpler, increasingly monochromatic look that is close to a classic Macintosh-style white-on-black theme. This will be favoured by some makers with declining eyesight (such as myself) and also gives a refreshing new look for purely aesthetic reasons.
As an alternative, if you’re dedicated to your own text or other editor and to work with Arduino sketches, or running a minimal or older computer that doesn’t run the later IDEs in a snappy fashion – you can edit the sketch elsewhere such as with a basic notepad or other text editor, and use the command line tool arduino-cli that allows users build the project and upload it to your Arduino without opening the IDE at all.
For more information visit: https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/0.34/installation
FINAL THOUGHTS
The new IDE is available now and once again, open-source for makers to dig in. This is a full-release version and not a beta-test, so I can recommend you install v2.2.1 and enjoy the improvements. Don’t forget to back up your Arduino folder and files just in case.
To learn more and download the IDE for your operating system, visit: https://www.arduino.cc/en/software/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Boxall is the director at Tronixlabs (https://tronixslabs.com), an online electronics retail store, importer and distributor of electronic components - operating since 2014.
John has also published a range of educational books in print and digital, including AVR Workshop, Arduino Workshop, and Arduino for Arduinians. These can be purchased at https://nostarch.com/search/boxall