Despite a wealth of tutorials for setting up and writing code for the ESP8266 WiFi module, there has not been much of anything on programming this cheap wireless module with the Arduino IDE ...

The Arduino is an excellent first embedded development kit, provides a great introduction to electronics, and has the potential to get children into programming. [David] thinks throwing C at non-pr… ...

One aspect that makes Arduino beginner-friendly is its universal programming language, powered by the Arduino Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

Arduino microcontrollers have added Python to the range of compatible programming languages. Others can be used, and not just Arduino's own IDE app.

For beginners learning to program Arduinos, a web-based, fully networked developer environment called Codebender could drastically reduce the learning curve.