The Arduino Ide - Espressif ESP8266 User Manual

B. The Arduino IDE
The Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is the tool you will use to program
the ESP8266. IDEs are more than just editors; they help you with various tasks during the
development process.
To install the Arduino IDE, go to https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and download the
latest version matching your operating system:
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For Mac OS X, you can download a ZIP file which you then have to extract. Take the
extracted application "Arduino" and move it to your Applications folder.
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For Windows, you have the option between an executable installer and a ZIP file. The ZIP
file might be the better option if you do not have administrator permissions on your
system. The installer on the other hand can put the libraries in the proper places.