Using Visual Studio Code as an Arduino IDE
The arduino IDE is great to get a project configured and started quickly, but its built-in code editor leaves a lot to be desired. Even though an external editor can be used instead, the experience could still be improved upon. With the release of Visual Studio Code for Linux, Windows and Mac OS, there's an opportunity to make coding for arduino enjoyable while preserving the ability to compile and upload sketches directly from the editor. Keep in mind that you'll still need to use the arduino environment at least once to manage a project's imported libraries, target boards settings, serial port settings, etc.
The following document describes how this can be accomplished in three easy steps.
1. Making the 'arduino' executable available
By default, the arduino environment on Linux is not visible outside of its installation directory and needs to be exposed as a command for Visual Studio Code to invoke it when compiling and uploading arduino sketches.
Skip this step if the arduino environment is already available from anywhere.
The following step creates a symbolic link to the arduino environment so that it can be accessed from anywhere. It is assumed that the arduino environment was installed in the user's /home directory, such as:
~/arduino-1.6.4
Switch to the /usr/local/bin folder and create a symbolic link named arduino pointing to the arduino installation folder.
cd /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s ~/arduino-1.6.4/arduino arduino
Check that the symbolic link is correct by starting the arduino IDE from the command line. The arduino IDE should start normally. Just close it when done.
cd /
arduino
On Windows, just ensure that the arduino environment is part of the PATH.
2. Copy the ino folder to your local Visual Studio Code extension folder
The ino folder in this repository provides Visual Studio Code with the arduino keyword definitions needed for syntax highlighting. It also specifies that .ino files should be handled as C/C++ files.
The repository contains the following files & folders:
drwxr-xr-x 3 fabien fabien 4096 Oct 13 09:43 ino
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fabien fabien 7652 Oct 1 18:05 LICENSE
drwxrwxr-x 2 fabien fabien 4096 Oct 2 18:45 pics
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fabien fabien 4605 Oct 13 09:43 README.md
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fabien fabien 1997 Oct 13 08:43 tasks.json
Copy the ino folder to the hidden .vscode/extensions folder that Visual Studio Code created at the root of your home folder the first time it was started.
cp -r ~/VisualStudioCodeArduino/ino ~/.vscode/extensions
3. Adding the Visual Studio Code Task Runners supporting arduino
From Visual Studio Code, do the following:
- Open the File menu and select Open Folder....
- Navigate to the folder containing your arduino projects.
- Bring up the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P.
- Type task in the command window.
- Select Configure Task Runner. This will create a hidden folder named .vscode at
the root of the arduino projects folder selected in step 2.
- Replace .vscode/tasks.json with ~/VisualStudioCodeArduino/tasks.json.
- Restart Visual Studio Code
The configuration of Visual Studio Code is now complete and it is ready for use with arduino .ino project files.
4. Usage
- Open a .ino project file.
- Bring up the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P
- Type task in the command window.
- Select Run Task
Select --verify to verify/compile the arduino project. Alternatively you can use Ctrl+Shift+B as a shortcut.
If problems occur when compiling the project, they will be visible in the lower-left corner of the editor
Clicking on the error or warning icon will bring up the list of problems
Clicking on a problem will highlight it within the .ino file.
Alternatively, bringing up the output with Ctrl+Shift+P + view: show ouput will show the complete, verbose, compilation results.
Select --upload or Shift+Ctrl+T to verify/compile & upload the arduino sketch to the target board. This will always bring up the output.
Finally, there's currently no good way to bring up the native arduino serial monitor externally. Instead, bring up a terminal window with Ctrl+Shift+C and use a different terminal emulator, such as minicom.
Note
This procedure has been validated to work with the following configuration:
- Ubuntu Linux 14.04 LTS
- arduino 1.6.4
- Visual Studio Code 0.9.x