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Why fork the IDE instead of making a library?

PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2015 3:17 pm
by Esben Soeltoft
Hello

I have been trying to investigate why it has been necessary to fork the Arduino IDE, but I am not sure if I have understood it correctly, and is hoping someone can point me some source of information to help explain.
1. Are there some fundamental difference in the way the esp8266 works, which conflicts with the mainstream Arduino?
2. Can I use the libraries in this IDE in the mainstream IDE if I just want to work with the esp as a wifi connected to an Arduino board? and if yes, then how?

Best regards
Esben

Re: Why fork the IDE instead of making a library?

PostPosted: Mon May 11, 2015 8:57 pm
by RichardS
Different compiler of course, different upload method, bootloaders etc...

Arduino 1.6.4 allows you to add new boards/compilers etc... through a link to an URL, within a week we will have this link for you and you can load new files to the mainstream 1.6.4 so you can have just one IDE.

Richard.

Re: Why fork the IDE instead of making a library?

PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2015 1:19 pm
by Esben Soeltoft
Okay, so the esp8266 requires different compilers, etc as it is a different type of board. Are there some posts somewhere which describes the differences and their implications for the IDE in greater details?

But then to the second part of my questions. If I want to use the esp8266 merely as a wifi-module connected to an arduino, is there a way where I can benefit from the libraries in this IDE?
When I try to choose a MEGA board with this IDE, I can't choose to import the esp8266 libraries with the import library menu option. Is there a way around this?


Esben

Re: Why fork the IDE instead of making a library?

PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2015 1:33 pm
by AcmeUK
Esben

Have a look here :- https://github.com/tuanpmt/espduino

It is a is ESP8266 Wifi library for arduino using SLIP protocol via a serial port to connect to the 8266.

MQTT and REST are supported.