WiFi and the Raspberry Pi
NodeMCU Firmware Comments
Bringing up the ESP8266 with the NodeMCU Lua software was a pretty good experience. Clearly, a lot of functionality can be implemented with this firmware. It supports timers, I2C, PWM, GPIO, the ADC, and the serial UART. Additionally, it's not too hard to get working. Once the software was running, I had no problems with it at all.
Arduino IDE
The Arduino IDE is a well-used, proven path to compile code for small computers using C/C++. Hundreds of libraries are available for all sorts of purposes.
The addition of Arduino IDE compatibility has dramatically expanded the possibilities for using the ESP8266 in IoT applications – small applications for which you want web and Internet connectivity. You can buy an ESP8266 for $3.00, which is roughly one fifth of the price of an Arduino Mega.
The ESP8266 doesn't have nearly the I/O capability of the Arduino family of boards, but, hey, you can buy five of them for the same price. I believe that the ESP8266 is leading the way to a whole new set of inexpensive, highly usable processors and IoT platforms. When you use the ESP8266 under the Arduino IDE, you can treat it just like a microcomputer plus WiFi board, with no other processors needed.
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