I've just started playing with a mBed and whilst the online IDE is pleasant enough, the editor isn't emacs.

I know that various people are trying to build an entirely local tool chain, but I'd be happy enough with a simpler hack: edit the file locally, then run a script/Makefile which squirts the source to mbed.org, compiles it, then pulls back the binary file and copies it to the mBed.

Has anyone done this, or have any hints where I should start looking ? For example, does the mbed.org toolchain offer any sort of API, or is the web browser interface all there is ?

Thanks in advance.

Hi Martin,

It isn't vi either :)

We have discussed making it available as a web API, but it is not available as one at the moment and there are no near-term plans. And for the record, you are only allowed to access the compiler via the official mbed Compiler IDE (i.e. no trying to reverse engineer the web interface! That is not allowed!).

But we're obviously interested to find out about desires like this, so happy to hear this or other use cases that could be explored that could influence our priorities.

Simon

I'd like to second Martin's request.

Having been "spoilt" with IDEs for various other environments, I find the online IDE almost unusable, and generally end up cutting/pasting entire files into an external IDE so I can edit them more easily, then cutting/pasting back again in order to compile.

Very cumbersome, but still more efficient than the online IDE :-(

There are too many features to list that I miss after having used other IDEs, but probably the most significant difference I see with the online IDE is the speed (or lack of it) when changing from one file to another. Presumably the online IDE only holds a single file open at one time?

It would be a big improvement, IMO, if the IDE would allow fast cycling between open files (ie any file you have opened to view since the browser window got opened), for example using Ctrl-Tab. Likewise, being able to quickly toggle between a .cpp file and its matching .h file (even if it hasn't been loaded yet, but resides in the same directory) would be a useful addition.

Andrew

Dear Simon,

Thanks for listening to my request, though obviously I'm disappointed that you don't have any short-term plans to address the issue.

I confess it seems odd to me that having produced what looks like a nice bit of kit---both hardware and software---the rules for using it seem to give people an incentive to use something else for non-trivial projects.

Still, I've had fun so far, so please accept my thanks anyway.

I don't think its at all bad, considering the price. You could always move to Keils IDE $$$ or an opensource toolchain with Eclipse.

Hi,

One of the most useful features that I miss from my $$$ Keil IDE is a global search / search and replace.  I currently have 60+ files in my project so if I want to change the global name of a function I have to change it where it is defined and then do several compiles to determine where the compilation throws a fault. 

The second item that would be really useful since I do a lot of copy and paste would be a multiline indent/outdent feature. By this I mean highlighting multiple lines and pressing TAB or Shift TAB to indent  / outdent these lines.

Any chance these are in the works for future functionality?

Best regards,

Barry

Barry Shonbeck wrote:
The second item that would be really useful since I do a lot of copy and paste would be a multiline indent/outdent feature. By this I mean highlighting multiple lines and pressing TAB or Shift TAB to indent  / outdent these lines.

Regards,

Dan

Jason Engelman wrote:

I don't think its at all bad, considering the price. You could always move to Keils IDE $$$ or an opensource toolchain with Eclipse.

http://mbed.org/forum/mbed/topic/665/?page=1#comment-3384

http://mbed.org/forum/mbed/topic/518/?page=1#comment-3165

It's obviously a perfectly reasonable point of view to say that if one wants the benefit of the mbed libraries, then one should use the mbed IDE. On the other hand, it seems a shame to be discouraged from properly joining the mbed community just because one wants to edit with emacs.

I suggest the mbed IDE team consider adding more keyboard shortcuts. For example, Ctrl+Backspace to delete word to the left. F1 on a library class or method to get help.

Old thread, but both things would really help make the mbed ide a favourite ARM dev tool.

A fully fleshed API might be a big deal, but a local "native html app" (like how the Mac Slack app works) would be a great boost - all the UI is basically just the html running in a webkit view, but the javascript could fire off local actions (eg. build would actually put the file straight onto the mounted volume, instead of just saving to the downloads folder), and could also keep a mirrored set of the files locally and push them up if they change (eg. from local edits from a native editor).

Hello,

Is the compiler still not available as a web API ? If not, is there documentation on how to set set our own server and provide a web API from it ?

Thank you !

Jerome