Programming Languages

[Dylan Wisdom]

I'm actually not new to the world of programming, unlike I am with electronics, but I am curious of what programming languages would be good to know for circuits, anything related to circuits, or just languages that are good to know. Thank You!

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

In my experience, most microcontroller programming is done in C and assembly language. Some environments use other languages such as BASIC and the Arduino language, and Java can be used on less resource-constrained devices.

Many languages are based on C's syntax, and C is a good compromise between efficiency and usability. I recommend C as a starting point if you want to get into microcontroller programming.

 

[Dylan Wisdom]

Okay, but when you say C do you really mean just C or C/C++?

 

[(*steve*)]

Ithe Arduino languag

Also known as C++

 

[KrisBlueNZ]

I mean C, not C++. Small microcontrollers have enough of a struggle supporting plain old C.

 

[Dylan Wisdom]

Okay, thanks, good to know. Does C have any IDE's?

 

[Harald Kapp]

Okay, thanks, good to know. Does C have any IDE's?

Yes.

I'd start from another viewpoint: what is your target system? E.g. arduino, beaglebone, raspberry ...
Each of today's current target systems typically has its own IDE or at least an adapted version of a common IDE (e.g. eclipse) which is tailored to fit the specifics of the target system (including, but not limited to the necessary libraries, options for in-circuit programming and the like). Or a µcontroller vendor offers a toolchain/IDE for a family of devices, like e.g. The "AVR studio" for Atmel processors or "MPLAB" for PIC processors, to name only a few.

 

[Dylan Wisdom]

I mostly want to work with Arduino and Raspberry Pi. I already know about Arduino's IDE though.