[ruslan]

Personally I do not like Arduino (and its IDE) because it hides many complex things under cover. But, really good thing about it is that programming microcontrollers like this teaches you to keep your code lean, worshipping any single byte of memory you have left, counting any single tick of your clock. I wish all software developers would begin their careers by programming MCUs to work out proper habbits. :-)

[sircastor]

This is actually the thing I like about Arduino. This is what made it accessible to folks who didn’t have any programming experience artists, experimenters, students.

There is a lot to be said for coding at the metal, but accessibility holds greater value for me.

That said, you also can skip most of the Arduino stuff even if you are using the platform.