Hi Shyam, it's not a bug, you are not creating a C++ project you are creating an Arduino project. 

If Visual Micro allowed you to add your own include directories then Visual Studio (with the plugin) would be the only software in the world that could compile your code. This would be wrong.

Visual Micro ensures that you can only do things that would still allow your project to build correctly in the Arduino IDE. It maintains 100% compatibility with Arduino.

I know this can be frustrating for experienced C++ programmers but the Arduino platform is the choice you have made so I hope this makes sense.

I have had a few requests to allow the rules to be broken. It might be an option in future releases but it has the capability to allow for much confusion among the various levels of user.

You can only do what the arduino allows. To include your own files from another location you have the option to make them libraries and then include them using the "Project>add arduino library". Notice that when you do this vm will ensure the correct VC++ include paths.

I hope this makes sense and that you realize this is not a bug. None of the deviations from normal C++ are bugs, this is just Arduino (for better or for worse) 

Although I dont like it, I have to agree with you. Keep the Arduino stuff as it is. More than that will cause huge confusion. One gets used to it soon enough.

Hi Jeff,

It is up to you if you use the tool or not. It is billed as Arduino compatible and if users are able to switch back to the Arduino ide as a safeguard at any time then they need to be kept on track!

If you would like to make a sensible suggestion feel free but before commenting please make sure you understand the Arduino build process and all the things that are happening in the background to ensure you don't need so much knowledge.

There are plenty of ways to add more libraries to Arduino. Shyam show created this thread wa s anew Arduino user who didn't understand what Arduino is and had not read about how it works and what config options there are. Maybe you are the same?

Hi Jeff,

Yes I know thanks for buying the product. If we made any changes like this I am sure all paid debugger users would automatically get the update but thanks for the extra offer.

Right now we have users who are downloading the beta of Atmel 6.2 or Arduino 1.5.6 and are unable to read the notices everywhere to download the Visual Micro beta and other users who get confused and think Arduino 1.0.5 is Arduino 1.5.x. So the focus is on turning the current beta into the recommended download.

If you come up with a reasonable recommendation(s) for how your request should be implemented by Visual Micro it will be considered and if it makes sense implemented. You have to investigate or consider the following:-

1) Visual Micro needs to control the lib paths so that intellisense is correct. maybe you want a switch that states you will control the paths. In which case you would need to make sure they are correct (event the arduino ones) otherwise compile will fail.

2) Or maybe you want a vm project property where you can simply add a few extra paths

3) Visual Micro compiles library cpp sources into .o files using a standard set of compiler definitions read from the arduino config. Would the code in the paths you specify adhere to the same build rules.

4) You should provide some examples of what you are trying to do so it can be replicated and understood.

5) If you think you have an idea that will work then you can try it out by creating your own Arduino core with your own build definitions. You should use arduino 1.5 to do that because the build process entirely defined in a few simple .txt files. If you can use 1.5 then you will be able to hardcode the include paths in the .txt build system for proof of concept.

If you get your RFduino working in 1.5 and would like some tips as to how and what to change then please open a new thread.

Thanks

Hi Gilles,

If I understand you right it's where I got to and then got stuck. Some settings need to be overridden and some don't? Or certain sets/groups need to be overridden? For the entire compile or on a file per file, then archive, link, epp, hex2elf etc?

So it got complicated and I hoped that at some point we can discuss some suggestions of what UI options would support what?

There is also the question of it makes sense to extend the build process to include libs in the .a format?

Or I considered a tool window which names every potential arduino build property followed by a "Set" button. The set button would set the respective atmel project property(ies) but the window would also serve as a crib sheet for people who want to manually configure and merge with their own existing atmel project settings.

With all of this it is complicated by the arduino 1.5 build config which is important to enable compile or arduino and clone boards without Visual Micro having prior knowledge of each board.

Take a look at the arduino15exe/hardware/arduino/avr/platform.txt and boards.txt. These two files define the entire build process. The .pattern properties in the platform.txt is key.

Ideally we would like Atmel Studio to perform the compile but that is a biggy.

Current focus is to make it easier to use "File>Open object file for debugging" which allows an Arduino with a hacked reset to be debugged using the native Atmel Studio debugger and hardware such as an Atmel ICE3. This work might involve an options to copy/toggle/link all arduino core and libs locally to below the sketch folder. This in itself will be a step towards a "convert arduino to atmel" option for the more advanced user.

So there is lot to consider and that is being considered the only limiting factor is time to experiment and knowledge.

Ideas or working examples will be very welcome   

The other shut cut is that more people start posting reviews on facebook and twitter etc. so that we get enough sales to hire some help. Hint hint 

Hi Jeff,

Okay now I understand. You can already extend Visual Micro to include the defines for intellisense purposes. In fact we aleardy do this for arduino 1.5/sam

If I recall, you have added your own rfarduino core but using Arduino 1.0.5. I haven't tested this combination, normally we would expect the arm stuff defined for arduino 1.5 but it should work. If not we can tweak it.

Take a look at C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Micro\Visual Micro for Arduino\Micro Platforms\arduino15x\hardware\sam\platforms.txt. This shows exactly how to do this for arduino 1.5.x but it should work for a 1.0.x app.

If I recall you simply need to create an RfArduino folder below "C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Micro\Visual Micro for Arduino\Micro Platforms\arduino10x\hardware\". Then copy the platform.txt from the same folder mentioned above then tweak the paths.

# Intellisense info not used during build
# -------------------

intellisense.tools.path={runtime.ide.path}/hardware/tools/g++_arm_none_eabi
rm-none-eabi\4.4.1\include\
 

After that "click tools>visual micro>reload toolchains then compile" or re-start the ide.

Because you have a paid license, if it works, I can tell you how to make the same defines in a custom folder away from the visual micro program files folder. But this first test under the visual micro folder will give less confusion.

Look forward to hearing how you get on.

ps: In future releases we hope to automatically extract the -I includes from the build command. This would dedupe so should not cause issues  with duplicate include paths.

Hi Jeff,

Great. I suddenly remembered you were using 1.5 that fits really well. The intellisense tweak isn't widely published yet. The whole app management system in Visual Micro was only released  last year and is maturing. 

Save me looking can you please confirm that similar -I includes are defined in the RFduino platform.txr that installs with the custom core? I hope you say the -I includes are there which means future version of Visual Micro can work this out automatically and negate the need for the intellisense.includes.

Thanks again, it's been a spot on test and easier than the original discussion because it relates to intellisense and not the compilation. We can easily extend intellisense without screwing up the build 

Makes sense thanks. your board is like the sam stuff.

You can add an intellisense.code.h file to the same location under visual micro that you added the platform.txt. You can put any defines in there that only affect intellisense, you will see a whole load of stuff piled into the one in the visual micro "sam" folder.

I hope this will avoid your having to hack the real sources such as arduino.h. Any pointers in this area will be aprpeciated, it's a weak area for me.

Thanks