Simpler Library Management

[GoogleCodeExporter]

One of the ongoing roadblocks to ease-of-use for new developers is the arcane 
location of 
downloaded libraries.  In older Arduino IDE's you simply put them in the 
libraries/libraryname folder 
but recently changes made you put them in the project, which seems to increase 
complexity, the 
need to create multiple copies, or to use shortcuts and aliases.

I can't find the defect that cause the changes from a simple library folders 
setup to project-based 
libraries but it has made teaching the arduino and debugging more complex.

The end result might be the dreaded path variable, which picks up the first 
occurrence of the library 
name in a sequential search of folders on the path, but this is even more 
complicated and harder to 
debug. Arduino is about ease of use for newbies as much as building more 
complex apps, so don't 
forget about the new users. Let's return to the single 
libraries/libraryname/libname.jar schema.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by dave.kau...@gmail.com on 24 Feb 2010 at 5:35

[GoogleCodeExporter]

In fact, there's still a single location for installing third-party libraries: 
the libraries sub-directory of your 
sketchbook directory.  The IDE and sketches should pick up libraries installed 
in this location, just as they do the 
system (default) libraries.

This is documented here: http://arduino.cc/en/Guide/Environment#libraries and 
was described in a blog post 
here: http://arduino.cc/blog/?p=313

Original comment by dmel...@gmail.com on 24 Feb 2010 at 6:15

• Changed state: Invalid