What is it? Hype? Hobby? Hacker stuff? Here is the best overall introduction I’ve seen so far – by Dave Jones. It’s 19 minutes – plenty of time to get used to his accent :)
(view directly on YouTube)
I think he really touches on all the important aspects and inevitable trade-offs.
Me, I use the Arduino bootloader for JeeNodes and JeeLinks all the time, and the Arduino IDE to compile and upload stuff to them, as well as the serial console in many cases. I do use my own editor environment – which is easy to do once you disable Arduino’s built-in one (this is not well documented, Google for “Arduino external editor”). So for me the Arduino is really the bootloader, plus the IDE just as compile/upload system.
As Dave points out, the Arduino is a wrapper around the avr-gcc compiler + avrdude in combination with a convenient USB-based upload/console/power hookup. The rest is libraries, conventions, a Java based IDE (based on Wiring), and optionally a Java-based PC-side front end called Processing.
On the embedded software side, it’s really standard full-scale C and C++.
Which is great, IMO. I can keep going with the Arduino-compatible JeeNodes and JeeLinks, and their built-in wireless, port conventions, 3.3V operation, and all the add-on plugs – knowing that much of this will work fine with as well as without all the stuff going on in the Arduino ecosystem right now.
You got used to my accent in 19 minutes?, I’m impressed!
Whoa, celebrity visitor… hello Dave, delightful video blog you’ve got going!
As for the accent thing – well, having spent a couple of weeks down-under some years ago did help me ;)
But seriously, thank you for presenting the Arduino for what it is, no more, no less.