How to Organize Code

[@RobWhittlestone]

NIce refresher for an old software engineer. Nice explanations. I haven't written code in over 20 years but have no problem staying with you. I cut my teeth on FORTRAN, ALGOL, FORTRAN 77, S-FORTRAN, Assembler from various machines, also embedded, Pascal, Turbo Pascal, ANSI 'C', COBOL, Visual Basic, JavaScript - and that's when I became a full time project manager. But it's important to know what the 'softies' are going through and what can go wrong. All the best, Rob in Switzerland

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks a ton for watching Rob!

[@planker]

Excellent. Lots to digest here. I have some printed sketches, I'll take a pencil to them and do some breakdown. Reverse engineering is how I've been doing this, nobody has thought me. You are doing Ok!

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks!

[@sanamandingra]

You just established my workflow forever... Thank you!

[@programmingelectronics]

Great! Best of luck!

[@avejst]

Great walkthrough of the process 👍 Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@jumadhaheri]

Well prototype functions is something new to me, fantastic educational video, thank you

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much for watching -Glad it helped some!

[@mahmoodmohammad7241]

Excellent, I like your way of teaching from scratch. Thanks

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks a ton!

[@KW-ei3pi]

I always pick up something new, that may not be the main focus of the video. Like the side information on Function Prototypes. Thanks!

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@HollyHertig]

Thank you! You answered so many questions!

[@h-h1859]

Thanks for the video. Super helpful as always🙏❤️

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much!

[@mr.goldenrod291]

Top of program, first comment is program purpose. Second comment(s) are the revision changes. I put my user-defined functions after loop() (and have not used prototyping.) Seems to make editing easier as I am paging up and down less. Otherwise, based on 30 years of programming, I organize my programs as you do.

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much for this!! That’s definitely a great addition.

[@jon_raymond]

This was really helpful. Perhaps you might consider an episode about using different tabs to help organize code?

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much, Jon! You must be reading minds because we just recorded a video on using tabs to help organize code, which will be released later this month. Thanks a ton for the suggestion; if you have any other video ideas, I would love to hear them!

[@jumadhaheri]

@@programmingelectronics yes please my currant WIFI clock is 3000 lines of code and any adjustment also a nightmare in Arduino IDE

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks ​@@jumadhaheri !

[@jamescullins2709]

Do you cover using other processors other than Arduino, like EPS32, STM ?

[@richardfurniss8091]

That explains a lot, Thanks

[@programmingelectronics]

Glad it helped! Thanks a ton for watching Richard!

[@exequielwouterlood5481]

Amazing tutorial!!

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks for watching!

[@cursoderobotica]

I love it!!! Cheers!!

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much!

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Excellent video! This is one thing i think the Arduino IDE does wrong - by allowing a programmer to stick their user defined functions below the loop and secretly compensating for it is a bit misleading to newcomers. It wasn't until i used platform io which is more strict that i realised what was going on . Any plans to make some videos on MicroPython ?

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much! Same for me, I really had no idea what was going on behind the scenes until I ran into an issue with not having a prototype written. Thanks for the MicroPython recommendation! No current plans but it’s something that’s has been interesting me for a while.

[@pmanolak]

IDE well allow users to put their functions at the end. Actually the sequence does not matter. we do the same in other languages too. p.e. PHP, JavaScript.

[@programmingelectronics]

You're right, in most cases the sequence doesn't matter as the IDE should be auto-generating those functions prototypes for you.

[@tonymai124]

I like your code font, would you tell the name of the font ?

[@programmingelectronics]

I think it is just the Arduino IDE default which i believe is called "Monoco"

[@warrenscorner]

Awesome video! What if my sketch gets so big it’s hard to find my functions? I created a sketch that the loop got so busy it was hard to figure it out so I created functions to break it up. Then I had so many functions that it was hard to find the function I wanted. How do I create my own libraries? Then how do I insert the code to jump to the library?

[@jovialcupid9687]

U can make new tabs, no need for library

[@programmingelectronics]

We have a video coming out soon about adding tabs in the Arduino IDE to help organize code better - this is a different approach than creating a library, but I think still pretty helpful depending on the use case. If the functions are all related and share/act on similar data, then making a C++ class may be the way to go.

[@programmingelectronics]

Tabs are great! Thanks for adding this.

[@RixtronixLAB]

Creative video, thanks for sharing it :)

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks so much!

[@joshuapitong899]

Thank you.😊🙌

[@programmingelectronics]

Glad it helped!

[@DIYRobotGirl]

Isn't those neopixel legs need a 12v battery?

[@ZookeeperJohnG]

Super helpful!

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks! Glad it helped!

[@0x8badbeef]

Arduino appears to be an exception to C. It surprised me I can put a function below where it is used, even without prototyping.

[@programmingelectronics]

The Arduino IDE has a build process that automatically creates prototypes for you (but sometimes it fails ;), which is why I usually always create prototypes for my functions. Thanks for the comment and for watching! arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/0.20/sketch-build-process/

[@takatamiyagawa5688]

I was kind of expecting a guide on how to break up code into multiple .cpp and .h files, but I guess that just amounts to a rehash of the tutorial on the arduino site on writing your own library, and it's effectively C++.

[@programmingelectronics]

On a slightly similar vein (but definitely different), we do have a video coming out about using tabs in the Arduino IDE to help organize code. When you add a tab, it creates an additional .ino file in the sketchbook folder and can help with organization.

[@kabandajamir9844]

So nice

[@programmingelectronics]

Thanks!

[@FioBrio]

You should use Arduino IDE 2.0

[@programmingelectronics]

The Arduino IDE 2.0 is great! I love code completion, the movable serial monitor window, and moveable error console (among many other things). But, I am still having an issue with a lag in the serial monitor. When that gets worked out, I will probably make the switch. What I still like about Arduino IDE 1.0 is that it is really simple, which can be a huge advantage for beginners.

[@sandwon]

How do I install into my library? it is not in there.

[@programmingelectronics]

Great question! If you go to tools > library manager and then search for the FastLED library you can one click install it there.

[@sandwon]

@@programmingelectronics Found it .Thanks

[@programmingelectronics]

@@sandwon Great! Glad that helped!