vi, found on most UNIX systems
vim is an updated version of vi
emacs, also found on many UNIX systems
github can help us collaborate on code
The software that converts source code into an executable image that the processor can run is known as a toolchain. It typically consists of a compiler and a collection of utilities that handle libraries and conversions.
Toolchains that you can access online are starting to become available as I am writing this [Sep 2015]. These have the advantage of allowing you to work on your project from a variety of computers, and also simplify the process of setting up the toolchain. On the downside, thus far it appears that online toolchains do not offer source level debugging, which is a feature that allows you to watch your code execute line by line.
Here are some online toolchains that we may look at.
Arduino Online IDE - For Arduboy programs, set board to Arduino Leonardo.
If you receive a permission denied message, try this
$ sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
Codebender - Support Arduino boards, especially those from Sparkfun. Can run from Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Chrome OS. More discussion here.
mbed - For ARM boards with mbed support. There's a giant page full of supported development boards here. The (free if you are young and British) BBC micro:bit can use these tools. Seems to be compatible with all development computers. The development board can appear as removable storage on the host computer. You can download the image by dragging it to the drive.
particle.io - Another ARM based board with WiFi. Best trick -- update the code over WiFi, no need to plug in a cable.
PICO-8 - Is a software program that allows you to easily create 8-bit style video games with sprites, music and sound effects. We should be able to use this software on all the computers in the Resource Room. More discussion here.
defold - Lua scripting and IDE for game development
Electronic component manufacturers design and distribute evaluation boards to give developers a head start in prototyping and designing products. In the past, these boards have often been expensive, say $100 to $400 for boards based on the sort of processor that could run a camera.
At the time of this writing, one can buy a small evaluation board from eBay for about $3. The board will show up in a small padded envelope, and it will take at least 10 days to arrive, because it came all the way from China. The people who are used to evaluation boards costing $100 think this is very exciting.
Geogebra takes equations and plots wonderful graphs
tiddlywiki allows you to put something like a web site on a flash drive