PlatformIO IDE for Atom¶

I. Atom¶

0. Download and install GitHub’s official Atom text editor. PlatformIO IDE is built on top of it.

1. Open Atom Package Manager

• Mac OS X, Menu: Atom > Preferences > Install

• Windows, Menu: File > Settings > Install

• Linux, Menu: Edit > Preferences > Install

2. Search for the official platformio-ide package

3. Install PlatformIO IDE.

II. Clang for Intelligent Code Completion¶

PlatformIO IDE uses Clang for the Intelligent Code Completion. To check that clang is available in your system, please open Terminal and run clang --version. If clang is not installed, then install it and restart Atom:

• Mac OS X: Install the latest Xcode along with the latest Command Line Tools (they are installed automatically when you run clang in Terminal for the first time, or manually by running xcode-select --install

• Windows: Download Clang 3.9.1 for Windows. Please select “Add LLVM to the system PATH” option on the installation step.

  • Clang 3.9.1 for Windows (32-bit)

  • Clang 3.9.1 for Windows (64-bit)

  

  Warning

  PLEASE DO NOT INSTALL CLANG 4.0. TEMPORARILY, WE SUPPORT ONLY CLANG 3.9.

  If you see a Failed to find MSBuild toolsets directory error in the installation console, please ignore it and press any key to close this window. PlatformIO IDE uses only the Clang completion engine, which should work after that without any problems.

• Linux: Using package managers: apt-get install clang or yum install clang.

• Other Systems: Download the latest Clang for the other systems.

Launch¶

After installation, launch PlatformIO IDE by opening Atom. Once Atom is opened, the PlatformIO IDE auto installer will continue to install dependent packages and PlatformIO Core (CLI). Please be patient and let the installation complete. Once finished, PlatformIO IDE will ask you to reload the Atom window to apply installed components. Please click on Reload Now. After that, PlatformIO IDE is ready for use. Happy coding!

Setting Up the Project¶

1. Click on the “PlatformIO Home” button on the PlatformIO Toolbar

2. Click on “New Project”, select a board and create a new PlatformIO Project

3. Open the main.cpp file in the src folder and replace its contents with the following:

/**
 * Blink
 *
 * Turns on an LED on for one second,
 * then off for one second, repeatedly.
 */
#include "Arduino.h"

// Set LED_BUILTIN if it is not defined by Arduino framework
// #define LED_BUILTIN 13

void setup()
{
  // initialize LED digital pin as an output.
  pinMode(LED_BUILTIN, OUTPUT);
}

void loop()
{
  // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, HIGH);

  // wait for a second
  delay(1000);

  // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
  digitalWrite(LED_BUILTIN, LOW);

   // wait for a second
  delay(1000);
}

Process Project¶

PlatformIO IDE proposes different ways to process the project (build, clean, upload firmware, run other targets) using:

• PlatformIO Toolbar

• Menu item PlatformIO

• Building / Uploading / Targets and hotkeys

5. Run Build and you should see a green “success” result in the build panel:

To upload firmware to the board, run Upload.

6. What is more, you can run specific target or process project environment using Menu: PlatformIO > Run other target... or call targets list from the status bar (bottom, left corner):

And select desired target:

7. To launch the built-in terminal interface, choose Menu: PlatformIO > Terminal or press the corresponding icon in the PlatformIO toolbar:

This provides you fast access to a set of powerful PlatformIO Core (CLI) CLI commands:

8. To run the built-in “Serial Monitor”, choose Menu: PlatformIO > Serial Monitor or press the corresponding icon in the PlatformIO toolbar:

The monitor has several settings to adjust your connection:

It also allows you to communicate with your board in an easy way:

Smart Code Linter is disabled for Arduino files¶

Smart Code Linter is disabled by default for Arduino files (*.ino and .pde) because they are not valid C/C++ based source files:

1. Missing includes such as #include <Arduino.h>

2. Function declarations are omitted.

There are two solutions:

{
  "execPath": "...",
  "gccDefaultCFlags": "...",
  "gccDefaultCppFlags": "-x c++ -fsyntax-only ...",
  "gccErrorLimit": 15,
  "gccIncludePaths": "...",
  "gccSuppressWarnings": false
}

Arch Linux: PlatformIO IDE Terminal issue¶

Please read this article Installing PlatformIO on Arch Linux.

Keep build panel visible¶

PlatformIO IDE hides build panel on success by default. Nevertheless, you can keep it visible all time. Please follow to Menu: PlatformIO > Settings > Build and set Panel Visibility to Keep Visible.

Key-bindings (toggle panel):

• cmd+alt+v - Mac OS X

• ctrl+alt+v - Windows/Linux

Automatically save on build¶

If you want automatically save all edited files when triggering a build, please follow to Menu: PlatformIO > Settings > Build and check Automatically save on build.

Jump to Declaration¶

Click on a function/include, press F3 and you will be taken directly to the declaration for that function.

Code Formatting¶

You need to install atom-beautify package and C/C++ Uncrustify Code Beautifier.

Windows¶

1. Uninstall Atom using “Start > Control Panel > Programs and Features > Uninstall”

2. Remove C:\Users\<user name>\.atom folder (settings, packages, etc…)

3. Remove C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Local\atom folder (application itself)

4. Remove C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\Atom folder (cache, etc.)

5. Remove registry records using regedit:

   • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

   • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

   • HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT*\shell

macOS¶

Run these commands in system Terminal

rm -rf ~/.atom
rm /usr/local/bin/atom
rm /usr/local/bin/apm
rm -rf /Applications/Atom.app
rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.github.atom.plist
rm ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.github.atom.ShipIt
rm -rf ~/Library/Application\ Support/Atom
rm -rf ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.github.atom.savedState
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/com.github.atom
rm -rf ~/Library/Caches/Atom

Linux¶

Run these commands in system Terminal

rm /usr/local/bin/atom
rm /usr/local/bin/apm
rm -rf ~/atom
rm -rf ~/.atom
rm -rf ~/.config/Atom-Shell
rm -rf /usr/local/share/atom/