I just learned when building Marlin that the Microsoft Visual Studio Code IDE can handle those, besides being free, open source, and unencumbered.

Bye bye Arduino IDE.

Good news... But I don’t know how to use that IDE. And I don’t get your “besides” comment. The Arduino IDE is free, open (but not OS) and what do you mean by unencumbered?

The Microsoft IDE is a dead end; the Arduino IDE is easily extended to new MCUs. It’s being extended all the time.

I’m interested in what you mean. I guess I’m clueless.

 

There are some options that are based on Visual Studio Core. They are interesting but I don't find them compelling.

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=vsciot-vscode.vscode-arduino
https://platformio.org
https://www.visualmicro.com

 

Good news... But I don’t know how to use that IDE. And I don’t get your “besides” comment. The Arduino IDE is free, open (but not OS) and what do you mean by unencumbered?

The Microsoft IDE is a dead end; the Arduino IDE is easily extended to new MCUs. It’s being extended all the time.

I’m interested in what you mean. I guess I’m clueless.

unencumbered
[ uhn-en-kuhm-berd ]
adjective
not impeded, slowed down, or retarded; free to move, advance, or go forward.
having few or no burdens or obligations.
not burdened or weighed down, as with bulky or heavy objects.

VC Code is a freebie. It doesn't even need to be installed, you just download it, unzip to a folder, and make a shortcut to the Code.exe executable. No nag ware, no advanced features that are pay to play, and the only adds you see are for other useful add ons (how I learned of the ESP environment).

I much prefer my project files neatly kept and grouped in a side panel rather than spammed over top tabs.

When building Marlin for my first time VS noted unfulfilled dependencies, sought them out, installed them, and completed the build in one step. It even has a button to "Import Arduino Project."

I'm not sure how this means "dead." It is not ready for the cart. It feels happy and going to go for a little walk now.