New Arduino IDE 2.0

[Martin]

It's about time!

The new 2.0 version of the IDE has been released. Very familiar to users of the old 1.x IDE (which is currently on 1.8.19) but has better colour syntax highlighting, with different coloured themes selectable. From the File menu, choose preferences, and try the different Theme drop-downs. It has auto-completion, so when you type the name of a class (like Serial, or Wire) it prompts you with all the class members that are available for that class. It also allows you to more quickly track down where a macro or library function you're using is actually declared and defined. If you hover your mouse over a function name, it will display information about what parameters the function accepts, and the type and meaning of any value it returns.

I'm glad they've kept it pretty simple - it must have been tempting for them to load it up with all the top-heavy functions you get in some other IDEs: these are great for experts with powerful workstations, but take too long to load on more humble hardware, and tend to frighten away beginners with their forests of choices. In any case, there are already powerful alternatives to the Arduino IDE that many experts are already using - the attraction of the Arduino IDE was always its relative simplicity that made it more suitable for beginners.

No need to uninstall your old IDE to try it out - you can even run the old and new IDE's at the same time, should you wish!

[Flynn]

I especially like that the updating of your libraries and boards is carried out automagically. The format is also closer to visual studio.

[Wayne_H]

Having just acquired a shiny new laptop, it seems too coincidental to ignore

The new machine will get the v2 IDE and v1.9.x will stay on my old laptop.

Thanks Martin for the heads up

[Flynn]

This isn't directly related to ide 2.0 but I am having to run ver 1.0.6 of the esp32 drivers package, if I install the latest 2.0.5 I get compile errors...something about FreeRTOS not being installed (but it is..ver10.4.6-8). The problem with not having the latest esp32 package is that the erase flash option was not available in ver 1.0.6, which means if I want to erase the flash I have to either use esptools or ide 1.0.6 (where the erase tool install does work). Do you guys have an issue with esp32 v2.0.5?