SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONS CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 3
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION
3.1 The Arduino Integrated Development Environment
Arduino Software (IDE) - contains a text editor for writing code, a message area, a text
console, a toolbar with buttons for common functions and a series of menus. It connects to
the Arduino and Genuino hardware to upload programs and communicate with them.

3.1.1 WRITING SKETCHES

Programs written using Arduino Software (IDE) are called sketches. These sketches are
written in the text editor and are saved with the file extension .ino. The editor has features for
cutting/pasting and for searching/replacing text. The message area gives feedback while
saving and exporting and also displays errors. The console displays text output by the
Arduino Software (IDE), including complete error messages and other information. The
bottom righthand corner of the window displays the configured board and serial port. The
toolbar buttons allow you to verify and upload programs, create, open, and save sketches, and
open the serial monitor.
NB: Versions of the Arduino Software (IDE) prior to 1.0 saved sketches with the
extension .pde. It is possible to open these files with version 1.0, you will be prompted to
save the sketch with the .ino extension on save.
Verify
Checks your code for errors compiling it.
Upload
Compiles your code and uploads it to the configured board. See uploading below
for details.
Note: If you are using an external programmer with your board, you can hold
down the "shift" key on your computer when using this icon. The text will change
to "Upload using Programmer"
New
Creates a new sketch.

Open
Presents a menu of all the sketches in your sketchbook. Clicking one will open it
within the current window overwriting its content.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 45

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

Note: due to a bug in Java, this menu doesn't scroll; if you need to open a sketch
late in the list, use the File | Sketchbookmenu instead.
Save
Saves your sketch.

Serial Monitor
Opens the serial monitor.
Additional commands are found within the five menus: File, Edit, Sketch, Tools, Help. The
menus are context sensitive, which means only those items relevant to the work currently
being carried out are available.
3.2 FILE
 New
Creates a new instance of the editor, with the bare minimum structure of a sketch already in
place.
 Open
Allows to load a sketch file browsing through the computer drives and folders.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 46

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Open Recent
Provides a short list of the most recent sketches, ready to be opened.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 47

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Sketchbook
Shows the current sketches within the sketchbook folder structure; clicking on any name
opens the corresponding sketch in a new editor instance.
 Examples
Any example provided by the Arduino Software (IDE) or library shows up in this menu item.
All the examples are structured in a tree that allows easy access by topic or library.
 Close
Closes the instance of the Arduino Software from which it is clicked.
 Save
Saves the sketch with the current name. If the file hasn't been named before, a name will be
provided in a "Save as.." window.
 Save as...
Allows to save the current sketch with a different name.
 Page Setup
It shows the Page Setup window for printing.
 Print
Sends the current sketch to the printer according to the settings defined in Page Setup.
 Preferences
Opens the Preferences window where some settings of the IDE may be customized, as the
language of the IDE interface.
 Quit
Closes all IDE windows. The same sketches open when Quit was chosen will be
automatically reopened the next time you start the IDE.

3.3 EDIT

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 48

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Undo/Redo
Goes back of one or more steps you did while editing; when you go back, you may go
forward with Redo.
 Cut
Removes the selected text from the editor and places it into the clipboard.
 Copy
Duplicates the selected text in the editor and places it into the clipboard.
 Copy for Forum
Copies the code of your sketch to the clipboard in a form suitable for posting to the forum,
complete with syntax coloring.
 Copy as HTML
Copies the code of your sketch to the clipboard as HTML, suitable for embedding in web
pages.
 Paste
Puts the contents of the clipboard at the cursor position, in the editor.
 Select All
Selects and highlights the whole content of the editor.
 Comment/Uncomment
Puts or removes the // comment marker at the beginning of each selected line.
 Increase/Decrease Indent
Adds or subtracts a space at the beginning of each selected line, moving the text one space on
the right or eliminating a space at the beginning.
 Find
Opens the Find and Replace window where you can specify text to search inside the current
sketch according to several options.
 Find Next
Highlights the next occurrence - if any - of the string specified as the search item in the Find
window, relative to the cursor position.
Find Previous
Highlights the previous occurrence - if any - of the string specified as the search item in the
Find window relative to the cursor position.

3.4 SKETCH
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 49
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Verify/Compile
Checks your sketch for errors compiling it; it will report memory usage for code and
variables in the console area.

 Upload
Compiles and loads the binary file onto the configured board through the configured Port.

 Upload Using Programmer

This will overwrite the bootloader on the board; you will need to use Tools > Burn
Bootloader to restore it and be able to Upload to USB serial port again. However, it allows
you to use the full capacity of the Flash memory for your sketch. Please note that this
command will NOT burn the fuses. To do so a Tools -> Burn Bootloader command must be
executed.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 50

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Export Compiled Binary

Saves a .hex file that may be kept as archive or sent to the board using other tools.
 Show Sketch Folder
Opens the current sketch folder.
 Include Library
Adds a library to your sketch by inserting #include statements at the start of your code. For
more details, see libraries below. Additionally, from this menu item you can access the
Library Manager and import new libraries from .zip files.
 Add File...
Adds a source file to the sketch (it will be copied from its current location). The new file
appears in a new tab in the sketch window. Files can be removed from the sketch using the
tab menu accessible clicking on the small triangle icon below the serial monitor one on the
right side o the toolbar.

3.5 TOOLS
 Auto Format
This formats your code nicely: i.e. indents it so that opening and closing curly braces line up,
and that the statements inside curly braces are indented more.
 Archive Sketch
Archives a copy of the current sketch in .zip format. The archive is placed in the same
directory as the sketch.
 Fix Encoding & Reload
Fixes possible discrepancies between the editor char map encoding and other operating
systems char maps.
 Serial Monitor
Opens the serial monitor window and initiates the exchange of data with any connected board
on the currently selected Port. This usually resets the board, if the board supports Reset over
serial port opening.
 Board
Select the board that you're using. See below for descriptions of the various boards.
 Port
This menu contains all the serial devices (real or virtual) on your machine. It should
automatically refresh every time you open the top-level tools menu.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 51

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

 Programmer
For selecting a harware programmer when programming a board or chip and not using the
onboard USB-serial connection. Normally you won't need this, but if you're burning a
bootloader to a new microcontroller, you will use this.
 Burn Bootloader
The items in this menu allow you to burn a bootloader onto the microcontroller on an
Arduino board. This is not required for normal use of an Arduino or Genuino board but is
useful if you purchase a new ATmega microcontroller (which normally come without a
bootloader). Ensure that you've selected the correct board from the Boards menu before
burning the bootloader on the target board. This command also set the right fuses.
Help
Here you find easy access to a number of documents that come with the Arduino Software
(IDE). You have access to Getting Started, Reference, this guide to the IDE and other
documents locally, without an internet connection. The documents are a local copy of the
online ones and may link back to our online website.
 Find in Reference
This is the only interactive function of the Help menu: it directly selects the relevant page in
the local copy of the Reference for the function or command under the cursor.

3.6 SKETCHBOOK
The Arduino Software (IDE) uses the concept of a sketchbook: a standard place to store your
programs (or sketches). The sketches in your sketchbook can be opened from the File
>Sketchbook menu or from the Open button on the toolbar. The first time you run the
Arduino software, it will automatically create a directory for your sketchbook. You can view
or change the location of the sketchbook location from with the Preferences dialog.
Beginning with version 1.0, files are saved with a .ino file extension. Previous versions use
the .pde extension. You may still open .pde named files in version 1.0 and later, the software
will automatically rename the extension to .ino.
Tabs, Multiple Files, and Compilation
Allows you to manage sketches with more than one file (each of which appears in its own
tab). These can be normal Arduino code files (no visible extension), C files (.c extension), C+
+ files (.cpp), or header files (.h).

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 52

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

3.7 UPLOADING
Before uploading your sketch, you need to select the correct items from the Tools >
Board and Tools > Port menus. The boards are described below. On the Mac, the serial port
is probably something like /dev/tty.usbmodem241 (for an Uno or Mega2560 or Leonardo)
or /dev/tty.usbserial-1B1 (for a Duemilanove or earlier USB board),
or /dev/tty.USA19QW1b1P1.1 (for a serial board connected with a Keyspan USB-to-Serial
adapter). On Windows, it's probably COM1 or COM2 (for a serial board)
or COM4, COM5, COM7, or higher (for a USB board) - to find out, you look for USB serial
device in the ports section of the Windows Device Manager. On Linux, it should
be /dev/ttyACMx , /dev/ttyUSBx or similar. Once you've selected the correct serial port and
board, press the upload button in the toolbar or select the Upload item from the Sketch menu.
Current Arduino boards will reset automatically and begin the upload. With older boards
(pre-Diecimila) that lack auto-reset, you'll need to press the reset button on the board just
before starting the upload. On most boards, you'll see the RX and TX LEDs blink as the
sketch is uploaded. The Arduino Software (IDE) will display a message when the upload is
complete, or show an error.
When you upload a sketch, you're using the Arduino bootloader, a small program that has
been loaded on to the microcontroller on your board. It allows you to upload code without
using any additional hardware. The bootloader is active for a few seconds when the board
resets; then it starts whichever sketch was most recently uploaded to the microcontroller. The
bootloader will blink the on-board (pin 13) LED when it starts (i.e. when the board resets).
3.8 LIBRARIES
Libraries provide extra functionality for use in sketches, e.g. working with hardware or
manipulating data. To use a library in a sketch, select it from the Sketch > Import
Library menu. This will insert one or more #include statements at the top of the sketch and
compile the library with your sketch. Because libraries are uploaded to the board with your
sketch, they increase the amount of space it takes up. If a sketch no longer needs a library,
simply delete its #includestatements from the top of your code.
There is a list of libraries in the reference. Some libraries are included with the Arduino
software. Others can be downloaded from a variety of sources or through the Library
Manager. Starting with version 1.0.5 of the IDE, you do can import a library from a zip file
and use it in an open sketch. See these instructions for installing a third-party library.
To write your own library, see this tutorial.
Third-Party Hardware
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 53
SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

Support for third-party hardware can be added to the hardware directory of your sketchbook
directory. Platforms installed there may include board definitions (which appear in the board
menu), core libraries, bootloaders, and programmer definitions. To install, create
the hardware directory, then unzip the third-party platform into its own sub-directory. (Don't
use "arduino" as the sub-directory name or you'll override the built-in Arduino platform.) To
uninstall, simply delete its directory.
For details on creating packages for third-party hardware, see the Arduino IDE 1.5 3rd party
Hardware specification.

3.9 SERIAL MONITOR

Displays serial data being sent from the Arduino or Genuino board (USB or serial board). To
send data to the board, enter text and click on the "send" button or press enter. Choose the
baud rate from the drop-down that matches the rate passed to Serial.begin in your sketch.
Note that on Windows, Mac or Linux, the Arduino or Genuino board will reset (rerun your
sketch execution to the beginning) when you connect with the serial monitor.
You can also talk to the board from Processing, Flash, MaxMSP, etc (see the interfacing
page for details).

3.10 PREFERENCES
Some preferences can be set in the preferences dialog (found under the Arduino menu on the
Mac, or File on Windows and Linux). The rest can be found in the preferences file, whose
location is shown in the preference dialog.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 54

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

LANGUAGE SUPPORT

Since version 1.0.1, the Arduino Software (IDE) has been translated into 30+ different
languages. By default, the IDE loads in the language selected by your operating system.
(Note: on Windows and possibly Linux, this is determined by the locale setting which
controls currency and date formats, not by the language the operating system is displayed in.)
If you would like to change the language manually, start the Arduino Software (IDE) and
open the Preferences window. Next to the Editor Language there is a dropdown menu of
currently supported languages. Select your preferred language from the menu, and restart the
software to use the selected language. If your operating system language is not supported, the
Arduino Software (IDE) will default to English.
You can return the software to its default setting of selecting its language based on your
operating system by selecting System Default from the Editor Language drop-down. This
setting will take effect when you restart the Arduino Software (IDE). Similarly, after
changing your operating system's settings, you must restart the Arduino Software (IDE) to
update it to the new default language.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 55

SOFTWARE SPECIFICATIONDecember 30, 1899

3.11 BOARDS
The board selection has two effects: it sets the parameters (e.g. CPU speed and baud rate)
used when compiling and uploading sketches; and sets and the file and fuse settings used by
the burn bootloader command. Some of the board definitions differ only in the latter, so even
if you've been uploading successfully with a particular selection you'll want to check it before
burning the bootloader. You can find a comparison table between the various boards here.
Arduino Software (IDE) includes the built in support for the boards in the following list, all
based on the AVR Core. The Boards Manager included in the standard installation allows to
add support for the growing number of new boards based on different cores like Arduino
Due, Arduino Zero, Edison, Galileo and so on.

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Page | 56