Anyone have comment on ARDUINO 1.5.5-r2 BETA 2014.01.10 ?

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Here's more info about the library spec.

https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/wiki/Arduino-IDE-1.5:-Library-specification

The library spec has been a hotly debated issue on the developer mail list, and for full disclosure, I'm one of many people who's participated in that conversation.

You can also see rev 2 of the library spec is due to be released in 1.5.6. The spec itself was only updated 25 days ago, and the code written only 18 days ago. So far, it's only on github and in the nightly builds. 1.5.6 will be the first beta release with the new library spec. Progress is being made, but it's a slow process.

Of course, it's still not perfectly clear if there will be a rev 3. I believe rev 2 addresses most of the concerns people raised, but it also rolls back some of the features people wanted, which I and many others feel weren't implemented well in rev 1.

This question comes up from time to time, why PJRC isn't supporting the very latest Arduino versions. The fact is Arduino 1.5.X is making some important changes internally. It just isn't worthwhile for PJRC to invest engineering time into supporting a "moving target", where upcoming changes will necessitate redoing a lot of work. Teensyduino would work exactly the same as it does on the stable 1.0.5 version, so the only advantage to supporting 1.5.X would be convenience for people also using Arduino Due or Yun. Today, with important infrastructure within Arduino changing, it just doesn't make good sense to divert time from projects like the audio library.

Hopefully this thread can serve as a definitive answer. Well, at least until the Arduino Team finalizes this spec and other important design features in 1.5.X. I definitely will support new versions, perhaps even before the Arduino folks call it stable, but right now is not the time.
 
Seems to me that the Arduino project keeps encountering the same roadblocks as any open-source collaborative project - death by committee. At least that would explain to me why a one-person effort like yours can continue to streak well ahead of the pack. Whether it's fixing malloc(), the Teensy Atmega 32u approach, the Teensy 3, etc. you've managed to release consistently successful projects vs. stinkers like the Due or the ongoing reliability issues with the Leonardo (or at least so I have heard, I don't own a Leonardo, nor would I ever).
 
Arduino has really improved over the last year, with Cristian Maglie as the technical lead. Cristian is much more open to accepting contributions from the community.

I see PJRC collaborating with Arduino moreso than competing.

It does seem like they're moving in a direction of AVR+Linux, on higher cost boards, with the Yun and Tre coming soon. I'm definitely focused on a microcontroller-only approach and keeping hardware costs down. It'll be interesting to see how this all develops. Adding the powerful Linux-based hardware definitely does make a lot of complex things far easier to develop, software-wise.
 
If you're using the Arduino Eclipse Plugin, or the new Arduno Eclipse IDE, stick with 1.5.2.
If you want to play with Due or Yún, do a separate installation of the Arduino IDE, Eclipse and the Plugin.
 
I came late to all this, but I assume that Arduino went with this scheme of source code libraries instead of binaries, to simplify configuration management and not burden the Arduino user (non-computer-science-grad) with the issues of binary libraries, CPU dependent library binaries, etc.
Is this new library organization changing to binary libraries?

As to boards with a Linux processor AND a small AVR or an M3/M4, Perhaps that's for students? But why, when the lab allows for use of laptops or tablets that run a big OS?
I have an RPi, and really, all it needs for I/O is more well documented kernel drivers for I/O. But I can see the use of an I/O co-processor for things like the huge LED arrays that are timing critical to an extent that the scheduler in Linux can't well do. But then, what of R/T Linux?
 
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I came late to all this, but I assume that Arduino went with this scheme of source code libraries instead of binaries, to simplify configuration management and not burden the Arduino user (non-computer-science-grad) with the issues of binary libraries, CPU dependent library binaries, etc.
Is this new library organization changing to binary libraries?

It's all still compiled from source.

A few times people have asked for binary libraries. Massimo has stated very clearly that Arduino will not support binary-only libraries, for philosophical reasons.
 
Things are still pretty much the same today as 7 months ago. Arduino 1.5.X is still "beta", Arduino *still* hasn't released a new "stable" version. For Teensy there's no advantage to using 1.5 over 1.0, other than convenience if you're also using Arduino Due or Yun.

Other work, like fixing the SPI library, has been a much higher priority.
 
Arduino 1.6.0 nightly build is out, and it has a feature I really need. autosave when verifying or uploading changes.

I have recently been hacking on a teensy 3.1 and have lost some code changes due to crashing. I did searching and in the newer versions of arduino IDE there is a boolean you can flip in your settings: save.verifyUpload=true.

Can you share any news about the new library formats? Are they in 1.6.0?
 
For Teensy there's no advantage to using 1.5 over 1.0, other than convenience

In my case, and probably lots of other Mac users, I have to use 1.5.8+ in order to use Java 1.8.

The older Arduino versions use JRE 6, which is seriously outdated and a major security risk on a Mac.

Now what do I do with the 6 Teensy 3.1's that I'm trying to get working?

Kenny
 
I manged to manipulate some symbolic links to get Arduino 1.0.6 working with JRE 1.6 and Arduino 1.5.8 working with Java 1.8.x.

The reason Java 1.8 and Arduino 1.5.8 are needed is because of the install of Eclipse I'm using.

Kenny
 
@gapdev
Not sure why you would need to modify anything like that. I initially had Arduino Eclipse 2.2 installed with the Apple supplied Java 6 alongside Arduino 1.0.5. When I felt it was time to update I installed Java 7 from Oracle (not Apple) Arduino 1.0.6, Arduino 1.5.8 and the Arduino Eclipse plugin/IDE. Worked like a charm.
Then Apple supplied an update to Java 8 and everything still works smoothly. The only thing that does not work is that I cannot open Arduino sketches in the Arduino IDE with a double-click anymore but i can live with that. Since moving to Eclipse I use the Arduino IDE very rarely.

I am not really sure what exactly the ArduinoEclipse plugin needs from Arduino 1.5.x because when I wrote my installation instructions it dawned on me that I was basically copying the complete Teensy toolchain.
 
I don't know why I had to go through all the rigmarole, but I'm using Eclipse Luna Service Release 1a (4.4.1) with the Nightly Arduino Plugin build, so...the latest of everything. Eclipse requires Java 7 or 8, so I installed the latest Java 8. Eclipse still complained about Java 6, so I editied the config file to add the -vm directive, and Eclipse then ran but the Arduino and C++ Plugins wouldn't show up on the Menus. I looked at the log and saw that it was loading the JRE 6.x runtime. So, I made a symlink in /System/Library/Java to point to the Java 8 runtime in /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines and the plugins then showed up in the Menus and I could then edit C and Arduino code.

Then, I find out Arduino prior to 1.5.8 needs Java 1.6 and that Teensyduino won't work with Arduino 1.5.8, so I looked for a way to have Eclipse, Arduino 1.0.6, Arduino 1.5.8 and Teensy all working. By chance I removed my Symlink in /System/Library/Java and restored the Java 1.6 that Apple puts there and now everybody is happy.

The whole Java thing is a real mess on Macs. But, to be honest, developers need to support the latest technologies. Java 6 is ancient.

I'm off to read your installation instructions. Not sure how I missed that before. Thanks.

Kenny
 
Java/JRE is also a real mess on Windows!
Not as bad.

I've yet to see an all-Java app that was truly robust on Windows.

I keep looking at used Apple Mini-Macs as a cheap entry to OSX. But to get an I5 with decent speed and not too new due to non-removable memory, it costs a lot for what you get, even as a 3 year old product.
 
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