He SDI is he programming environment used to develop projects on any Arduino board. Therefore, to carry out your ideas you will need to know perfectly what this software is.
Because of that, we have prepared the following article. This will allow you to know, in a simple way, all the parts that the interface of SDI. You will find illustrative images that will help you reinforce the concepts.
But this is not all, we will also tell you the versions that the IDE has had and the steps you must do to install this environment on your computer.
What is the Arduino IDE or development environment and what is this platform for?
The interactive development environment or IDE, for its acronym in English, is a programmer used to compile and interpret code for the development of programs that are used on an Arduino board. It’s compatible with Linux and Windows, so its versatility is one more point in favor of these devices for electronic projects.
The languages it supports, among others, are:
- Eclipse.
- Emacs Lisp.
- GNU Emacs.
- IntelliJ IDEA.
- MonoDevelop.
- MyEclipse.
- NetBeans.
- Perl.
- PHP.
- Python.
- Ruby.
Knowing the Arduino IDE What are all the parts of its interface?
The graphical interface of the IDE is made up of the following parts:
Main screen
The main screen has 5 tabs, which represent a group of different tools. In addition, it has a quick access bar to access the functions Check, Upload, New, Open and Save. The first thing you will see is a sketch with the default name of the date.
Then you will find the commands that the program is ready to start working with:
At the bottom of the screen you will find an area destined to receive messages from the program, called IDE Message Console.
Main menu
You will be able to access the main menu from the home screen, where you will find these tools:
- Menu file: In this section you will find the functions that will help you create a new sketch, open a recent one, find a project, search for help examples, close a sketch, save a sketch, save a new project, configure the page for later printing and to restore job preferences. In this way you can access the management of different projects and configure your environment.
- Edit menu: when you click on the tab Edit you will find functions that will allow you to undo or redo the last action, cut, copy, copy to the Forum, copy the codes as HTML, paste codes, select all the content, go to a certain line, comment and undo the comment on a line , increase or decrease the indentation, increase or decrease the font size and perform specific searches.
- Program Menu: if you need modify operations or functions of a project that you have loaded in the sketch you are going to have to use this menu. You will be able to find the functions that will help you to verify and compile the codes, to upload codes, upload using a programmer and export through binary numbers, show a program folder, include a specific library and add a file.
- Tools menu: In this section you will be able to use functions that will help you to configure tools that are external to the Arduino programming environment. That is why you will find the auto-format function, program file, repair the encoding, manage libraries, serial monitor, plotter serial, change the type of board, modify the connection port of the board, get information from the board. that is being used in development, change the type of programmer and burn the bootloader.
- Help menu: as its name indicates, in this section you can find help to perform a quick start, troubleshoot, find frequently asked questions, and learn about Arduino.
Quick access bar
In the quick access bar you will find the following functions:
- Check: This tool is used to find the program folder and find out its location. It will also help you to check if the code is well written. To do this, it is necessary to select a group of codes and then click on this action.
- Go up: you will be able to use this function once you have the bridge code ready and need to upload it to the Arduino board.
- New: you can new project to start working.
- Open: This tool will allow you to open a project with which you have already worked and have saved it on your computer.
- Save: This tool is used when you want to save a project to a certain path.
- Serial monitor: located on the right side of the quick access bar, this tool is used to open the message console.
Message bar
This is the last part of the IDE GUI, in which you will find a console that will inform you the messages when there are errors in the source codes of the project.
What are all the versions of the Arduino development environment out there?
The current version that you can download to your computer from IDE is 18.13, which (as we told you before) is compatible with Windows 7, W8.1 and W10; MacOS from version 10.10 and Linux, in their 32 and 64-bit versions, and in the 32 and 64-bit ARMs. But this is not the only version of the arduino programming environment.
We will show you below a complete list with all the versions prior to 1.8.13, we will start with the oldest of all:
- Arduino 0001. Released on August 25, 2005. It was the first alpha version in which the language was introduced in the library.
- Arduino 0002. Two months later the second version was launched, in which a construction process was introduced that allowed adding a more familiar menu.
- Arduino 0003. Like the previous version, this decision is launched 2 months after its predecessor. Errors are corrected and the API is changed, in addition, characteristics of the C language and the Serial Monitor function is added.
- Arduino 0004. It goes out to the public on April 26, 2006 in which a C ++ language is established for the sketches. The Matrix and Sprite libraries are added.
- Arduino 0005. After 5 months this version appears to improve the Linux environment when using the avr tools search.
- Arduino 0006. In October 2006 this version was released for the MacOS system, in which Java 1.5 is no longer needed. Supports for analog inputs are also added.
- Arduino 0007. At the end of 2006, a new kernel was launched on the market, much smaller than the previous one, so it now weighs 3.5 KB. The routine Serial.flush () is implemented; which allows to consult reference.
- Arduino 0008. In June 2007 the libraries for the stepper motors and for the EEPROM memories are added. In addition, there are changes in the microcontroller going from ATmega168 to ATmega8.
- Arduino 0009. This version was released on August 6, 2007 to add support to the Arduino Diecimila board.
- Arduino 0010. Brackets for the LilyPad and Vista boards also appeared in late 2007. In addition, it is distributed for MacOS X and improves the error messages that the system delivers.
- Arduino 0011. The map (), analogReference (), interrupts (), and noInterrupts () functions appear in this release. The waiting time parameter of a process is also incorporated.
- Arduino 0012. In September 2008 Pro and Pro Mini boards were added to the menu. Several libraries are incorporated and Millis () is improved.
- Arduino 0013. On February 6, 2009, this version appears that improves the loading speed of the ATmega328 microcontroller. Functions such as word (), bitWrite () and highByte (), among others, are also added.
- Arduino 0014. Bug fixes preventing connections and AVR for MacOS updated.
- Arduino 0015. In this version the Arduino Mega board is incorporated.
- Arduino 0016. The supports for the Arduino Pro, Pro Mini and LilyPad boards begin. Also, it does optimize the controller for timer0.
- Arduino 0017. The LiquidCrystal library receives an update on July 25, 2009. In addition, it can work with up to 12 servo motors on almost all boards.
Learn step by step how to install the latest version of the Arduino IDE on your PC
To install the latest version of the Arduino IDE you must follow this step by step that we show you below:
Enter the official Arduino website
The first thing you will have to do is access the Arduino page with your browser https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and go to the tab SOFTWARE. Then you must find Download the Arduino IDE and click on the software you have installed on your computer.
Download the IDE programmer
When you click on the OS you want, a new window will open in which it will ask you if you want to contribute money to the maintenance of Arduino. To do this you must click on CONTRIBUTE AND DOWNLOADotherwise you will have to click DOWNLOAD ONLY.
Perform the installation
At this point, what you will have to do is continue with the steps indicated by the installation wizard, choose the download path and then click on Save. After a few minutes you will have to unzip the file arduino-1.8.13-[nombre de tu sistema operativo].zip.
Do not forget to configure the port and the version of the board
To start working without errors you will have to configure the IDE to indicate in which port you have connected the board Arduino and what model is this. For that you will have to access Tools and select the functions License plate and Port to customize your options.