So....what do I do?

[Brian Beuken]

Ah, yeah, the Linux option from the newer Visual Studio seems to work fine.

My dev from the book has been on Ubuntu to Pi using Eclipse which works fine. It does take some effort to get it set-up though.

Yeah its improved a lot since I first checked it out, and aside from some occasional unexplained (so far) hangs, it is doing everything it has to do rather well. It can be a bit of a pain to set up for multiple boards,and multi configs get very confusing, but most people won't have that issue. So my initial reluctance to reccomend it has been overcome.
You should post more on how you work with Eclipse, the more we remvoe the mystery of the IDE, the more we can get people actually building code.

[Lawro]

VisualGDB is for me the best option for coding on SBC targets. But it does come at a cost and not everyone can afford it.

The next best option is to use Visual Studio's cross platform development options for Linux.

This provides almost all the functionality that VisualGDB does, Edit and debug on the PC, console screen display, but only build on target so it can be a slow build.
It can be a bit clunky to set up, but there is a default raspberry project that can be used to get started, and most default linux projects will work on other machines. Do not use the Raspberry config, if you are not using a raspberry, not all ARM systems are the same,  it don't work like that

It needs a tiny bit more understanding of the build process to get set up, so its best to use the 30days free VisualGDB trial to get familiar with what is happening during a build process, and this will be more understandable.

Its also a bit of nightmare if you have more than one device listed for it, but assuming most people are normal and not like me with 20 different system to target, if you have 1 system its ok, it just makes you jump through strange hoops to add others.

A few of the book and Magpi projects will be converted to this system to demonstrate how to get going.

Visual GDB is expensive for sure, but I can understand why it is considering what it does. By the by, which is the version we'd need to buy for your book?

I'd imagine we wouldn't need the Ultimate version, but then the Embedded version doesn't support the Pi according to their website.

[Brian Beuken]

The Visual GDB Linux version, is all you need, Ultimate has many features but you won't use them unless you are a very expereinced coder.

The 30day trial version is free and is basically the ultimate version it gives you a chance to play with all the fancy features, but we just want the basics. Linux version is currently $109 with a very generous 50% discount for students or academics.

Though I am still very much in the VisualGDB camp because its so easy to use, the VS for Linux cross platform systems are getting better and better and its almost at the same level now.

[Lawro]

The Visual GDB Linux version, is all you need, Ultimate has many features but you won't use them unless you are a very expereinced coder.

The 30day trial version is free and is basically the ultimate version it gives you a chance to play with all the fancy features, but we just want the basics. Linux version is currently $109 with a very generous 50% discount for students or academics.

Though I am still very much in the VisualGDB camp because its so easy to use, the VS for Linux cross platform systems are getting better and better and its almost at the same level now.

Fantastic, thanks Brian. I've been using the trial, but with my best intentions and with life often getting in the way, I won't finish your book before the trial ends, hehe. Great to know we can just go for the cheaper Linux tier of Visual GDB, but also good to know there are alternatives.

[jomoengineer]

One thing to note, with the Visual Studio Linux cross compiler, the compile of the code happens on the remote system, such as the Raspberry Pi, rather than locally on the host system where VS is running. So, basically it will copy the code to the RasPi and then compile it there. I am not sure if VS Code will compile locally, but I am quite certain this can be down with Eclipse.

The other option is to use the GNU Windows Toolchain for Raspberry Pi and run it at command line. I'm not sure if this can be done in VS though. I suspect this is what VisualGDB is doing behind the scene though.
https://gnutoolchains.com/raspberry/tutorial/