ESP8266 Community Forum

While testing the use of the "ESP8266 with addressable LEDs" I am noticing the limitations of the esp8266 ... things like the lack of fast gpio switching, inadequate timing, useless ADC, poor documentation, unknown spi (hspi) interface, etc. Perhaps with time these issues will be worked out ... for now, regardless if the problems are with the hardware or software ... at times it would be better if the esp8266 were tied (paired) together with an mcu ... and let the esp8266 do what it does best ... handle the wifi ... and let the mcu handle whatever ...

I am including arduino, stm32, avr, and others in this list. while searching for interconnecting these devices I have only found examples where the arduino (mcu) communicates with the esp8266 via the uart (using only tx, rx, and gnd) and only with using the "at commands".

1) What sort of speed do we actually get with the uart (using only tx, rx, and gnd) ...
2) Are there anyways to get hardware flow control on either the esp8266 or arduino ?
3) Could either SPI(HSPI) or I2C be a better/faster solution of intercommunication?
4) Can the current "at commands" handle things like binary data or streaming (continuous) data?
5) Are the "at commands" really the best way to intercommunicate?
6) What other types of IPC can be constructed between two MCUs? (the esp8266 is an mcu!)

Just thinking ... there has got to be something better ... other than AT commands ...