Comment by luca_ing | Hacker News Reader

Comment by luca_ing | Hacker News Reader

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> You need to bother with make/cmake/build scripts/toolchains/upload tools and other things... Just tell PIO which board (currently, we support ~370 different boards/architectures/mcu) do you want to use and PIO will do all complicated work for you automatically.

You know, it's funny. You explain this as a big advantage of PlatformIO, but it's actually the thing that worries me the most. I don't even know yet why -- kind of a gut feeling.

I guess it prompts me to ask question such as: will it really work properly for all 370 platforms? Or only kinda? Can it do everything I need it to? or does it limit all 370 boards to their lowest common denominator in terms of interface and exposed capabilities?

There's another argument though: Usually I need only one board. Maaaaybe two. So while setting up toolchains can be a thoroughly unpleasant experience, it's something I do once per project or so, and then I'm good for the next months or years. This vast support is nice, but rather irrelevant in practice.

Dear Luca,

We don't force you to use PlatformIO. If you like manually manage build scripts, toolchains, etc. and understand how to do that, you can switch PlatformIO to your own build system. I remember that I already explained to you how to do that (own `build_script` entry within PIO build environment).

> There's another argument though: Usually I need only one board. Maaaaybe two.

Thanks, I've heard your feedback. PIO is intended for developers who don't want to focus on the 1 board for 1 year. We don't live in 90-th, today each month we have new boards, MCUs, connectivity solutions, etc. PIO allows you an easy switch between them. If you don't know at 100% which hardware do you need for the next 1 year, PIO is the excellent tool here. You can experiment with dozens of boards and find better hardware according to the project requirements. They cost a few $$$ today.

Stay tuned for our news. We are working on the very interesting things which will be announced soon.

> If you don't know at 100% which hardware do you need for the next 1 year, PIO is the excellent tool here

Actually, no.

That was one of the points I was trying to make. Beause I have to trust you that PlatformIO works well enough on all 370 boards. And I won't know until I try, by which time I'm already deeply invested in PlatformIO.

> I remember that I already explained to you how to do that (own `build_script` entry within PIO build environment).

Yes, I vaguely remember. I think it was before 3.0 came out?

It's been a while, but IIRC it didn't feel like build_script was a good solution for me.

IIRC you said you were going to improve the documentation. I shall re-read it. Maybe it makes more sense to me now, and I'll change my opinion.

> Stay tuned for our news. We are working on the very interesting things which will be announced soon.

I'll be watching with interest.

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