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105 lines
4.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
105 lines
4.9 KiB
ReStructuredText
.. Copyright 2014-2016 Ivan Kravets <me@ikravets.com>
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Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
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you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
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You may obtain a copy of the License at
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http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
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Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
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WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
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See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
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limitations under the License.
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.. _what_is_pio:
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What is PlatformIO?
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===================
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.. contents::
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Press about PlatformIO
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----------------------
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"Different microcontrollers normally have different developing tools .
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For instance Arduino rely on Arduino IDE. Few more advanced users set up different
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graphical interfaces like Eclipse for better project management. Sometimes
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it may be hard to keep up with different microcontrollers and tools. You
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probably thought that single unified development tool could be great. Well
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this is what PlatformIO open source ecosystem is for.
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This is cross platform code builder and library manager with platforms like
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Arduino or MBED support. They took care of toolchains, debuggers, frameworks
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that work on most popular platforms like Windows, Mac and Linux. It supports
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more than 200 development boards along with more than 15 development platforms
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and 10 frameworks. So most of popular boards are covered. They’ve done hard
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work in organizing and managing hundreds of libraries that can be included
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in to your project. Also lots of examples allow you to start developing
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quickly. PlatformIO initially was developed with Command line philosophy.
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It’s been successfully used with other IDE’s like Eclipse or Visual Studio.
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Recently they’ve released a version with built in IDE based on Atom text editor", -
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[Embedds]_.
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Awards
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------
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PlatformIO was nominated for the year's `best Software and Tools in the 2015/16 IoT Awards <http://iotawards.postscapes.com/2015-16/best-iot-software-and-tools>`_.
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Problematic
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-----------
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* The main problem which repulses people from embedded world is a complicated
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process to setup development software for a specific MCU/board: toolchains,
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proprietary vendor’s IDE (which sometimes isn’t free) and what is more,
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to get a computer with OS where that software is supported.
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* Multiple hardware platforms (MCUs, boards) require different toolchains,
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IDEs, etc, and, respectively, spending time on learning new development environments.
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* Finding proper libraries and code samples showing how to use popular
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sensors, actuators, etc.
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* Sharing embedded projects between team members, regardless of operating
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system they prefer to work with.
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Overview
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--------
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PlatformIO is independent from the platform, in which it is running. In fact,
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the only requirement is Python, which exists pretty much everywhere. What this
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means is that PlatformIO projects can be easily moved from one computer to
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another, as well as that PlatformIO allows for the easy sharing of projects
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between team members, regardless of operating system they prefer to work with.
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Beyond that, PlatformIO can be run not only on commonly used desktops/laptops
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but also on the servers without X Window System. While PlatformIO itself is a
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console application, it can be used in combination with one's favorite
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:ref:`ide` or text editor such as :ref:`ide_atom`, :ref:`ide_clion`,
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:ref:`ide_eclipse`, :ref:`ide_emacs`, :ref:`ide_netbeans`, :ref:`ide_qtcreator`,
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:ref:`ide_sublimetext`, :ref:`ide_vim`, :ref:`ide_visualstudio`, etc.
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Alright, so PlatformIO can run on different operating systems. But more
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importantly, from development perspective at least, is a list of supported
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boards and MCUs. To keep things short: PlatformIO supports approximately 200
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`Embedded Boards <http://platformio.org/#!/boards>`_ and all major
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:ref:`Development Platforms <platforms>`.
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User SHOULD have a choise
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-------------------------
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* Decide which operation system they want to run development process on.
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You can even use one OS at home and another at work.
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* Choose which editor to use for writing the code. It can be pretty simple
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editor or powerful favorite :ref:`ide`.
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* Focus on the code development, significantly simplifying support for the
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:ref:`platforms` and MCUs.
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How does it work?
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-----------------
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Without going too deep into PlatformIO implementation details, work cycle of
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the project developed using PlatformIO is as follows:
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* Users choose board(s) interested in :ref:`projectconf`
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* Based on this list of boards, PlatformIO downloads required toolchains and
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installs them automatically.
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* Users develop code and PlatformIO makes sure that it is compiled, prepared
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and uploaded to all the boards of interest.
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.. [Embedds] Embedds.com: `Develop easier with PlatformIO ecosystem <http://www.embedds.com/develop-easier-with-platformio-ecosystem/>`_ |