After downloading and compiling the mbed-os-blinky-example, the folder takes 286MB on my hard disk. Just to flash a LED. How can anyone make something so simple, so complicated....?

Hi Ralph,

Yes, the OS development environment is definitely a large package! But it gives you all the core OS code and tools to drive development.

We had a lot of discussions whether this was the right trade-off, but ultimately it was. When setting out to develop an application, downloading the core OS SDK to undertake a development project is not a big deal - and of course it means you can go develop even if unconnected to the internet (this was one of the big complaints we were getting from everything being drawn down "on demand"). I agree it seems overkill if the application is tiny, but of course something like the blinking LED application just picks up the bits you need so it doesn't impact the actual end result!

If you want to try out things quickly without downloading anything, you can use the Online IDE to try things out - that should be super-fast.

Thanks for the questions!

Simon

Hi,

It's always hard to understand, why an off-line IDE is needed for anything. For those, who can not understand all the background processes done by the IDE (compiler, linker, debugger etc.), it's hard or even impossible to clearly explain the differences and possible benefits.

There's a repeating question about the tools: which is the best? The answer is very simple: which best meets the goal you're going to achieve.

Regards, Tamás