I'm a bit torn. While there's something nice about the simplicity of an 8-bit device and DIP packages, I've come to enjoy ARM's Serial Wire Debug, and ARM tooling. Definitely don't miss avr-gcc and avrdude.
In a way, it's ironic. The AVR tooling back in the day was just so much better than PIC (for a novice hobbyist, pre-Arduino).
Ah, the good old days where computers had a serial port and you could assemble an AVR programmer on a breadboard to flash an AVR and build a USB programmer.. Programmer bootstrapping ?
But you're right, the tooling has come a long way. The proliferation of ARM in so many domains means lowly microcontrollers can benefit, as opposed to being bound by the manufacturer or community size.
> Hopefully RISC-V will improve this even further.
In was more hopeful in past then I'm now with the RISCV ecosystem.
The issue there is fragmentation, so it's not RISCV... every vendor will have their tooling because they'll be adding their secret sauce that they wont be sharing with everyone else, which is a shame.
> The AVR tooling back in the day was just so much better than PIC
I'm disappointment MPLAB X Ide only supports x86 Macs. Also, release 6.20 was Jan 2024 so the release cycles are pretty long... doesn't inspire confidence.
In a way, it's ironic. The AVR tooling back in the day was just so much better than PIC (for a novice hobbyist, pre-Arduino).