Importing Third-Party Libraries - Arduino Sketches: Tools and Techniques for Programming Wizardry - page 377

CHAPTER
24

Importing Third-Party Libraries

This chapter requires the following:

Arduino Uno

■

Adafruit Si1145 breakout board

■

As you have seen throughout this topic, the Arduino libraries add an impres-
sive amount of functionality to the platform. They facilitate the use of a large
number of electronic components and breakout boards. In some cases, using a
shield is as simple as selecting the correct library, but this isn't always the case.
The Arduino ecosystem has grown immensely over the years; it has been used
for an unbelievably large amount of projects. Not all use “standard” components;
some need more specii c hardware.
When you import a library, the Arduino has access to more functionality. For
example, the SD library enables you to easily write to large storage formats with
an Arduino, something that would otherwise be difi cult to do. This is done by
adding functions, pieces of code that help you talk to hardware, or performing
software calculations and actions. Libraries facilitate this by importing these
functions and making them available to the sketch. Sketches can, of course, add
existing standard Arduino libraries, but they can also add libraries written by
third parties.