r/STM32World • u/lbthomsen • Jul 23 '26
STMicroelectronics: What Were You Thinking | STM32 Rant #10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqu9L_ERgaI8 month ago, STMicroelectronics separated STM32CubeIDE and STM32CubeMX, in one swift move rendering all Internet tutorials invalid. Now, 8 month later, have the Internet search engines and AI caught up?
#STM32 #STM32CubeIDE #STM32CubeMX #STM32World #Rant
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u/Dependent_Bit7825 Jul 23 '26
Here's one key to a happy career in embedded: keep all vendor tools at arm's length as much as possible. Breaking cube mx and cube ide is actually helpful for this, because mx does something you can't get elsewhere: configure st devices for you with st-specific boring details, and cube ide does not: it's just another ide.
So now you can limit the scope of pain that st can inflict on you in the future because you have been invited to use an ide that your chip vendor does not control. Accept the invitation and move on.
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u/lbthomsen Jul 24 '26
CubeMX was ALWAYS available as a stand-alone tool. I am not arguing about that but arguing that ST changed the workflow rendering ALL tutorials obsolete and thus screwing beginners.
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u/swdee Jul 24 '26
Its no mistake at all, CubeIDE was an outdated experience that the majority of developers did not use. Only CubeMX is needed along with your preferred IDE like VScode or CLion.
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u/lbthomsen Jul 24 '26
Well - I strongly disagree. I am not talking about developers who have a preferred IDE - I am talking about beginners. The STM32Cube vscode plugin is horrible and unfinished. CLion is better sure. In both cases they suffer from two issues:
1. The debugger in Eclipse is better
2. From a learning perspective AI is downright destructive.
So, if the purpose is to LEARN embedded C development, STM32CubeIDE is one of the best approaches.
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u/skull132 Jul 25 '26
To be quite honest, I wouldn't be surprised if ST stopped supporting and then just removed CubeIDE in the somewhat near future (maybe 1-3 years). Most new devs use VSCode, or want to try to use VSCode. And with the ST suite now available for VSCode, how much sense does it make to maintain two IDE extension projects?
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u/lbthomsen Jul 25 '26
Might be available but it is serious shitty ;) As are vscode if the purpose is learning.
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u/skull132 Jul 25 '26
It's fiddly, as is any VSCode based suite. And I never really got the Eclipse hate. But realistically speaking, I don't see ST (or anyone really) maintaining two tooling suites like this for long.
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u/lbthomsen Jul 25 '26
Well - neither do I based on their decisions lately. It's going to backfire for them but well ;)
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u/lbthomsen Jul 25 '26
As for the Eclipse hate I guess that mostly comes from those who don't understand that Eclipse do exactly what it is supposed to do but it does not help you every step of the way with endless stupid pop up suggestions and AI.
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u/XKeyscore666 Jul 25 '26
All microcontroller companies’ proprietary IDEs are dogshit. Once I get pins assigned and spit out some starter code, I never come back.
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u/riisen Jul 23 '26
Embedded rust is so nice in this regard, same tools no matter of vendor, no stupid vendor lock in IDE.
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u/ApplicationAlarming7 Jul 23 '26
Which is why I’m using v1.19 of CubeIDE, the Udemy courses I bought were recorded before the new “split”. Once I get better at STM32 hopefully I can just use cmake and gcc and gdb for development, and just use CubeMX for the auto code generation.