We had a work experience student design a project and write the code in Arduino. I now have the unhappy task of trying to carry this project on.
It uses Bluetooth which I understand nothing of as of yet
It uses an RTC that is not completely working yet and again I understand nothing of
I have discovered that there does not seem to be a well defined way to have a program in multiple files in the arduino "IDE". I tried breaking the files up and there are already a few that are all .h files with code in them and this did not work.
So I decided that the next best thing would be to import it all into microchip studio where at least I can read the damn font on a 4k screen.
So I now find that I have errors galore, mostly related to not being able to find things that seem to be defined in a file called string.h, if defined is the right word as I don't read C++ and we are now into the bowls of the arduino code. I have tried including string.h into the files that have errors but this does not work.
Ultimately it would be nice to update this project working in C but how I work around things like Bluetooth and the RTC I do not know. I should almost start from scratch but that will be a big task as I have to reverse engineer it, understand how to rewrite it and then start again.
What are my options for working on arduino code? this all compiles in the arduino "IDE"
So, I read your original post again because the thread is becoming confusing, at least to me.
Your last line....
this all compiles in the arduino "IDE" If that is so, then exactly what do you think that you will gain using VS? I assume that you figured out how to get a reasonable font on your 4K within the arduino ide - so, beyond that, it is not clear what you are complaining about or trying to fix - other than the obvious...some student wrote something and now you have to deal with it. I guess what I am saying is; the best option for working on arduino code that has already been written using the arduino IDE, including who knows what board and libraries, and is working (at least to some extent), is the arduino IDE.
If you are trying to translate it to C or C++, in order to "carry on" you should still be working in the ide until you can, at the least, see and understand all of the code - the student's .ino and as well as libraries that have been used. So much in there can be standard only to the evolution of arduino and I don't know anybody who thinks that 'it' follows C or C++ standards to a helpful extent.
For example, if he used an rtc library, such as rtclib, you need to go into the libraries directory, locate and go through the rtclib.h and rtclib.cpp files - to see what is not working and why it is not working. Certainly, you could rewrite that library in standard C, if you wanted to put forth the effort.
Bluetooth is more complicated and my guess is that the student used the esp32 library and so on and so forth. Even there I am guessing, but he either wrote his own stack (unlikely) or he used an existing library and that library is going to be dependent on code for the board (also available through the ide) - the point is that the source code is available to you using the arduino IDE in either case. To rewrite all that is, well, not much fun, I would imagine.
I have discovered that there does not seem to be a well defined way to have a program in multiple files in the arduino "IDE". I tried breaking the files up and there are already a few that are all .h files with code in them and this did not work.I think you are probably right, but it can be done. Why, however, did you do this and how is VS going to solve that for you?
I'm not trying to give you a hard time, it is just that as I think more about your OP, I just don't get exactly what you think VS is going to do for you?