Nowadays many people are using dark theme applications over the normal one, because the number of working hours we spend with electronics devices are increasing day by day. So in this article I will guide you how to how to install Arduino Pro IDE and use it the similar way we used classic Arduino IDE.
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Arduino Pro IDE (Beta)
Arduino Pro IDE is the new IDE made for advanced developers with various advanced features that will definitely attract developers to fall in it. It is loaded with enhanced material dark theme is the one of the best thing. But the list is endless. It is also has various other features to appeal developers along with this it will continue to have its classic Arduino IDE features. Pro IDE is an enhanced version with features to appeal developers – while retaining continuity with the simple, classic Arduino IDE
Modern Material Dark theme make its look amazing
It is loaded with debugger, Its definitely a very useful and time saving tool for large production programming where a single bug leads to havoc.
Multiple Theme Support
Advanced Serial Monitor with timestamp
Outline Panel for function or block navigation
Visual Side Scrollbar for interactive Scroll
New Board Manager, Library Manager, Repository, Search and File Manager
Git Integration
Immediate Syntax Error detection in Problem Toolbar
Supports Third party Plugin, Library and Boards
Support in app Terminal for command execution
Advanced Navigation with last edit navigation and many more, Install and Explore…
Available in Windows, Mac OS X and Linux64 versions.
Why Pro
As I have already discussed so many advantages of using this pro IDE. If you are programming something great or your code is going to be lengthy then I will recommend to use Pro IDE over Classic IDE as is has many benefits which will help you to program long code in a simple and easy way without any bug. As Pro IDE has debugger inbuilt so you don’t have to find and correct the bug yourself the debugger will find it for you. So lets continue how to install and use this IDE.
Steps to Install Arduino Pro IDE
Step 1 : Open Google and search for Arduino Pro IDE and click on the first link to open the official Pro website.
Step 2 : Scroll down to Arduino Pro IDE (Beta) section and click on Download the Beta
You can read and explore this official website to know more about Arduino Pro.
Step 3 : This link will take you to GitHub Repo of Arduino, scroll down a little and click on the latest release of Pro IDE according to your Operating System
Step 4 : After Downloading you will get a zip file, Extract it to get the Arduino Pro IDE folder.
Place this folder safe in some other local disk, if you want and also create shortcut of the executable file on the desktop for fast access.
Step 5 : From Inside that folder run the Arduino Pro IDE executable file
Step 6 : Congratulations you got the Arduino Pro IDE(beta)
This is the main screen of Arduino Pro IDE. Looking Fantastic Isn’t it.
Now After you got this Arduino Pro IDE lets experiment with it and use it advanced features…
Introduction to Arduino Pro IDE
Arduino IDE have title bar, menu bar, toolbar with some common functions, editor to write and edit your code or program which you will be burning into the board, message area, output and problem panel, interactive scrollbar, outline panel, and side panel for explore, search, GitHub, library and board manager everything on the same screen. We will discuss each and everything in detail.
Sketches
Here also we call sketch to a file name created in this software.
Title bar and Sketch
Whenever you create a new file in Arduino its name start with sketch_monthDate(a/b/c..).ino example sketch_apr29a.ino you can save it by any custom name you want. The extension of Arduino sketch is .ino The title bar displays the name of the sketch file.
Menu bar
The menubar consist of File, Edit, Selection, Sketch, Tools, View, Go, Debug, Terminal and Help lets discuss them one by one
File
NewSketch Creates a new sketch with basic structure known as Bare Minimum code.
NewFile Allows you to create a new file in the current directory with the extension given at the time of creation. The file can be of any type example .txt or .c or .h etc.
NewFolder Allows you to create a new folder in the current directory.
Open File Allow to open the saved sketches.
Open Folder Allow to open folder in the explorer panel.
Open Workspace Workspace is the complete window which you are working with. It will allow you to open a Workspace.
Open Recent Workspace Gives the list of recently used Workspace.
Save Workspace As Allow to save Workspace as Theia workspace or VS code workspace.
Save Saves the sketch/file with the current name. If its first time it will prompt to choose the name of the file.
Save All Saves all the sketch/file which have been modified, with the current name. If its first time it will prompt to choose the name of the file.
Save As Allows to save the current sketch/file with a different name.
Auto Save Allow to auto-save the progress to avoid risk of losing the code.
Settings Access various settings like Preferences and Theme. The Preferences window where some settings of the IDE may be customized, as the language of the IDE interface.
Close Workspace Closes the current Workspace and launches new Workspace.
Close Window Closes all sketches and files and then closes the window.
Edit
Undo/Redo Undo or Redo your code content. i.e the code that you are writing can be brought to a previous version if you made any mistake.
Cut This option removes the selected part of the code and place that content into the clipboard.
CopyIt copies the selected content to the clipboard.
Paste Paste the content of the clipboard starting from the editor pointer.
Find Opens the Find panel from which you can find a part or syntax in the long code easily generally it is if your code is too long in the current file.
Replace Find and replace a syntax or a part of your code in he current file.
Find in Files Opens the Find panel from which you can find a part or syntax in the long code easily generally it is if your code is too long in the current from all the files in the current working directory.
Selection
Select All It selects all code of the sketch.
Shrink Selection Till the date I am uploading this article this option does nothing.
Copy Line Up It duplicates the lines selected, if no line is selected it duplicates the line in which there is cursor, to one line below(as name suggest it must do it above but it does below) the current selection or cursor point.
Copy Line Down It duplicates the lines selected, if no line is selected it duplicates the line in which there is cursor, to one line below the current selection or cursor point.
Move Line Up It moves the lines selected, if no line is selected it moves the line in which there is cursor, to one line above the current selection or cursor point. If there is already any code above, then the above line is pushed below.
Move Line Down It moves the lines selected, if no line is selected it moves the line in which there is cursor, to one line above the current selection or cursor point. If there is already any code below, then the below line is pushed above.
Cursor Handling
Add Cursor Above If nothing is selected and there is cursor in line 4 then it adds cursor at above line i.e line 3 and now there are two cursor points, so whatever you type or edit will be reflected at two places. If some part on line 4 is selected same part will be selected in the above line also.
Add Cursor Below If nothing is selected and there is cursor in line 4 then it adds cursor at below line i.e line 5 and now there are two cursor points, so whatever you type or edit will be reflected at two places. If some part on line 4 is selected same part will be selected in the below line also.
Add Cursor to Line Ends It adds cursor to line ends of each lines that are selected if no line is selected then noting happens.
Add Selection to Next Find Match It selects next match of the selected part from line which is selected. It means if you have selected pinMode word then the next exact match of pinMode word, below the line you selected, will be selected.
Add Selection to Previous Find Match It selects previous match of the selected part from line which is selected. It means if you have selected pinMode word then the previous exact match of pinMode word, above the line you selected, will be selected.
Select All Occurrences of Find Match It selects all match of the selected part.
Sketch
Optimize for Debugging It Optimize your code for debugging while you are writing the code.
Verify/Compile It compiles and checks your sketch for errors.
Upload Before uploading it compiles the code if no err is fount then it upload it to the Arduino Board
Tools
Board Manager It opens Board Manager panel that has the option to choose among the wide variety of boards which Arduino IDE supports. In our upcoming article we will be using Arduino Uno board so select this option only. We will discover more boards and in those articles we will discuss how to install new boards.
Mage Libraries It opens Libraries Manager panel from there You can install various libraries offered by Arduino or other third party vendors after that you can insert any library into your program by manually adding a library to your sketch by inserting #include statements at the start of your code. We will learn how to manage libraries in our upcoming articles…
Serial Monitor Opens the Serial Monitor this is the toll we will be using mostly, almost in all of the program. It is a dialogue box which have a input area and a output area. The input can be given the the user when the program in the board is running. And the output part is for displaying the output if any sent by your board which must be programmed into the board. This Serial Monitor option is only available if your Arduino or any board is connected via USB to your PC/ Laptop and desired board and port is selected.
View
Find Command This option shows all commands to execute like open, save, close, search almost all menu options is here like site map.
Open View This option allows to choose various panels to expand or collapse or show if hidden.
Debug This option open Debug panel shows various debug options and values of variables, breakpoints, stack, thread etc during debugging.
Debug Console This option open Debug Console panel to shows debug output and allows you to execute debug commands.
Explorer This option open Explorer panel which shows all the files in the current directory.
Git History This option open Git History panel which shows all the git command executed.
Outline This option open Outline panel which shows all the functions and variables declared in the sketch.
Output This option open Output panel which display demon output or Arduino output.
Problems This option open Problems panel which shows various problems or syntax error which are there in the code.
SCM This option open Source Control Management panel for GitHub repository.
Search This option open Search panel to find a word or syntax in a file or in complete working directory.
Panel Handling
Toggle Bottom Panel This option toggles all the bottom panels which are open i.e expand and collapse.
Collapse All Side Panels This option collapse all side panels which are open.
Toggle Word Wrap This option toggles word wrap i.e it will break all the long lines to fit the screen width so that complete line is visible on the screen.
Show Minimap This option toggles the option to show interactive side scrollbar also known as minimap.
Render Whitespace Displays all the Whitespace with light grey colored dot.
Reload Window Reloads the Windows and refreshes all libraries, tools and packages.
Zoom In Increases the font and other components size.
Zoom Out Decreases the font and other components size.
Reset Zoom Resets the zoom level of the complete window.
Go
Go This menu helps to navigate to various locations and files where we were editing for fast navigation, like back, forward and last edit location.
Debug
Debug This contains a list of operations to debug a program. Debug means removing a bug from a program, and coding means adding bug to program. This menu contains debug option all you have to do is mark a point in the code then start debug line by line so that analysis will be easy and you will be able to find the bug, it will open debug panel to show various values, calls, stack values and breakpoints so that you can analyse your program and find the bug.
Terminal
New Terminal Opens new terminal in the bottom panel.
Run Task This option allows you to run task that are predefined by the IDE.
Run Build Task This option will run the build task as chosen by the user from the list of prebuilt tasks.
Run Test Task This option shows various test tasks to run.
Run Last Task This option allows you to run the last task that was run on this Wrokspace.
Show Running Tasks This option shows tasks which are currently running.
Restart Running Task This option restart the currently running task.
Terminate Task This option allows to terminate or stop the current task.
Attach Task This option allows to attach a task to the process.
Configure Task This option allows to configure the selected task.
Help
About Displays information about Arduino pro the version and libraries used.
Advanced Mode This option toggles Advanced Mode to display more advanced mode for which for which Arduino Pro IDE is there otherwise without this it is similar to classic Arduino IDE.
Toggle Developer Tools This option toggles the developer mode if you want you can see how and which scripts is helping Arduino to run if you are open source contribute then you can contribute by finding bug through this method.
The Editor
This is the editor and it has every function to simplify and improve your coding speed. Pretty Printing, indentation and color for each different components like variables, functions, constants, comments etc.
The Toolbar below menubar
These are some highly used options so instead of going through menu simply click these tools for doing your required task. It have options for Verify/ Compile , Upload, Open, Save, Board Selector, Serial Monitor and Advanced Mode Toggle option.
So this was all about introduction to Arduino Pro IDE in our upcoming articles you will learn how to control the brightness of the led using Arduino UNO and many more so stay tuned, keep visiting
How did you like this post. Was it informative, Did you understood all the points, What problem you faced during reading this article. Do you have any doubts or any query…
Comment Down each and everything I am eager to hear from you.
In the next article we will look and understand what are LED’s so that we can build our first project. Till then KEEP LEARNING
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