PlatformIO IDE

You may have heard about IoT, short for The Internet of Things, which is basically a new-age concept that validates the idea that all digital or mechanical devices, as well as living beings, will soon become interconnected and will be able to transfer data without computer interaction.
PlatformIO is an advanced and extremely versatile ecosystem that was specially designed for IoT development. This said, PlatformIO IDE is a set of command line tools built on top of the popular Atom code editor.
This said, you should know that the installation of PlatformIO IDE is not what you would call mainstream. To streamlined the process, we highly recommend that you install Python 2.7.11 on your system right off the bat - it will save you the trouble later.

Not your average installation process

By launching the installer, Atom is firstly installed on your computer's system. You should not worry about the fact that once the initial installation is over, you will be greeted by Atom's typical main window.
Patience is the word that should be on the back of your mind, as it may take a while until PlatformIO integrates itself with Atom.
You should get an explicit notification that the process has been completed, at the end of which you should see the PlatformIO menu in Atom's menu bar.

Packs an impressive set of development boards, platforms and frameworks

The most important thing you need to know about this IDE is the fact that it comes with support for more than two hundred development boards, fifteen development platforms and over ten useful frameworks.
Other than that, most of the work will be handled by the Atom platform and you can easily access the IDE's features via its single drop down menu.
Without getting into too much detail, you can initialize new PlatformIO sessions, import Arduino projects, build or upload already existing projects, install shell commands, upgrade platforms its platforms, libraries and Atom packages and access tools like Serial Monitor and Terminal.

Advanced IDE specialized on IoT development

All in all, PlatformIO IDE is a comprehensive utility that can not only provide a valid replacement for the Arduino IDE but it also provides an excellent opportunity to explore the fascinating world of IoT development.