Starting out on a mac with this breakout board

[Bndit]

Thanks to the answers and support here, I think we are going to use the nrf52832 ( we migrate from another company after having really hard times). I am struggling to find out what IDE and programmer you can use on a mac - that simply works without hassle.

1. If we use this breakout board, can we program it on a mac using Nordic environement ? if so which ? they show the Arduino.

2. When we develop our custom pcb with the chip, what are the options to program it ? (personally and in mass production) ? should we add onboard chips to enable usb programming ?

3. I could see that Xcode can be used, but there is no comprehensive tutorial from start to end and some people having problems setting it up. Is it a stable solution ?

Thank you , and sorry for being a little bit pessimistic before .

[endnode]

Hey, please read the blog posts and tutorials, there are several of them related to OSX and MAC (like this and this)

[Bndit]

I'v read these, and it actually seems like a nightmare to me. Not sure why other then Arduino no chip maker can actually make a software that simply let you start coding and hit a button to flash. Why its always so hard. If we have to go through hell to build the exact same things we can build with Arduino and feel less "sophisticated" so I think I am out..

[endnode]

There are people using Arduino IDE for nRF5x, one of the latest Arduino boards have it. There are things like Adafruite boards/IDE and mBed, they will probably be closer to what you are looking for. You can call me (and other people here) a dinosaur but this is how we really write the SW because there is no "shortcut" by nice and easy IDE on today's ARM Cortex-M processors if you want to have best-in-class embedded application, it's as simple as that. Not saying you need to go the same way, maybe other tools will make you happy.

[Bndit]

Best class embedded applications? I think we are getting a little bit philosophical here, but you seems to not understanding what life is about and why engineers are here. I know its more fun when its hard because you feel smart and so on, but the main goal is to build a product as fast as possible, and if most of them, 99.5%, only need to toggle ports and run simple algorithms, then "understanding SW" is overrated, especially because we only live once, and we want to build products for people and not pushing people to understand how a chip maker was thinking when he made a chip :)

[endnode]

Always glad to learn new bits about SW engineering:)