IDE – Arcane Science Lab

arduino 2.0 rc6 fixes a problem

whbeebe — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 01:55:19 +0000

On 27 March I complained about the Arduino IDE 2.0 RC5’s inability to edit URLs to point to board support repos ( /2022/03/27/a-problem-with-the-arduino-ide-2-0-rc5/ ). It appears that the latest release candidate has fixed this major problem. The only complaint I have left is how the ‘Cancel’ and ‘OK’ buttons are arranged. They are still opposite, and they are visible that way (see below). Oh well, at least I can begin to test the usage of the version 2.0 IDE with programming ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3 development boards.

a problem with the arduino ide 2.0 rc5

whbeebe — Sun, 27 Mar 2022 17:52:11 +0000

I have been using the Arduino IDE 1.x since I first came across it back in 2013, so nearly 9 years now. In all that time it’s done yeoman work as a tool for writing software for embedded devices in C and C++ for both Arduino and Adafruit devices. I might be a big fan of Python, and by extension, Micro Python and Circuit Python, but there’s no denying that when critical timing counts and/or you’re limited in memory and storage resources that the Arduino IDE and C/C++ give you much finer control towards implementing an embedded solution. I was therefore greatly anticipating the final release of Arduino IDE 2.

Arduino IDE 2 ( https://www.arduino.cc/en/software ) is a re-write of Arduino IDE 1 using the Theia Platform ( https://theia-ide.org/ ). The usage of Theia brings the Arduino IDE 2 interface up to date with its contemporaries, such as Visual Studio Code. While the main interface is great to work with, it’s some of the subfunctions that are questionable, such as Preferences | Additional Boards Manager URLS.

The current release of Arduino IDE 2 is at release candidate 5. It’s this release with which I have a problem. When I try to add new URLs to point at board support repos, the text box into which those URLs can be edited is a very narrow line that will not expand. I need this feature to work in order to try and use the Arduino IDE 2 to help write software for the latest ESP32 boards, such as the ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3. This is a problem since RC2 was released, and has been a problem with each release candidate since.

It wasn’t a problem with the beta releases. This is how the dialog should look, using the last beta in the series, beta 12. As you can see the text box is open, and I have at least three separate URLs in the text box.

Another issue that has been in all the releases I’ve used, both beta and release candidate, is the placement of the ‘OK’ and ‘Cancel’ buttons. On the Preferences dialog it’s one way, while on the Additional Boards Manager URLs dialog it’s the opposite. I don’t care what order you choose, but the order should be consistent. It’s not a bug like the dialog text box, but it is just downright sloppy.

I have tried to report this to the developers, but it appears my reporting isn’t getting through. I hope I’m wrong and that this issue is fixed before the final release.

updating the java jdk path in intellij idea on macos

whbeebe — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 20:18:47 +0000

I have a very short fuse when it comes to wading through bad advice found on the web, especially old technical advice. Case in point, how to update a current release of IntelliJ IDEA’s Java/JDK path to an external JDK already installed on your machine.

I’m currently trying to do some work with:

Java/OpenJDK 11.0.5 LTS release distributed by AdoptOpenJDK using
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition 2019.2 on
macOS Mojave 10.14.6.

When I started to try and use that Java release, IntelliJ couldn’t seem to find it, and I couldn’t seem to configure IntelliJ where to look. After looking at six-year-old directions via the web that were mostly right I finally figured it out. Here’s what to do with the latest release of IntelliJ.

Open the File menu and select Project Structure. This used to be buried in Other Settings, which is where all those older directions tell you to go. Now it’s out in the open, probably because of the shift from Java8 to Java9 and beyond that’s been occurring every six months since Java9 was released Setember 2018.

A dialog will show up as shown below.

In my example I’ve already set up to use Java 11.0.5. To add a new location, click the red folder on the far right, where you see the help balloon in the screen capture above. Clicking that will open a regular folder/file dialog allowing you to pick he location where your specific Java release is located on your Mac. Once you’ve set up the correct location click OK and go back to editing in the IntelliJ IDE.

I hate searching for technical information on the web, because it is without exception for older (many times far older) software than what you’re currently working with. The majority of it is old crap from Stack Overflow. And as far as I can tell, none of the search engines are capable of bubbling up current information, let alone correct information. I mean, you should have seen what I also got looking for the answer to this question.

You’re welcome.