Hey everybody,
Some shameless self promotion going on here 
I've been using an Arduino for a while now, and I just dont like the
look and feel of the Processing based IDE. Also I dont like having
to load up Java each time I want to upload some code to Arduino.
Sorry guys n gals that worked hard on it, and spent their free time on it.
So lately, I've been doing a little of coding in python, which has the
result of this.
Its NOT a finished project. If you dont know what a Makefile is DONT use it,
its not yet ready for everybody to use. But the basic functions are there,
assuming your on a Linux disto... 
It is technically possible to make this program run on OsX & Windows,
however I dont own a Mac, and Im going to finish features
that I want before I work on support for a platform that i dont use!
The reason for this post is that if there are any users there on Linux, I could do
with feedback at this time, as to how usability might get improved and how
we can combat errors & bugs..
If there's anybody intrested in trying it, work away, drop me an email, or check out the link above!
Cheers, -Harry van Haaren 
PS: There is still some manual work to be done to use libraries.. Thats where
the Java based IDE really did work well, the auto importing of Libs, and automatic linking of them to the Sketch... I think that at one point I will incorperate a similar feature into
this IDE, however dont wait for it!
Nice project...much appreciated!
Suggestions: package up your .tar.gz to extract in a separate subdirectory. That is a common expectation.
A bit too many hard-coded directories and such for me to get working (e.g., avrdude in /usr/local/bin instead of /usr/bin, avr-gcc in /usr/local/avr, etc.) but it has promise!
Selecting boards is done from ui.glade? How are people going to add new boards, like the boards.txt file in the regular UI?
Hey Rugged,
True, at the moment there are a lot of hard coded variables.
(I hope you checked the google site, there's a "quick & dirty"
explaination of setting up the enviroment there..)
The other option for avrdude is to supply the executable with the program.
Means that you have to make 3 versions for each platform.. or it just wont work
on a platform if you accidentally download the wrong version.. I'd prefer have one
"big" package which allows running on all platforms.
As for the extracting... I cant belive that after all the times i got irritated when people didnt include a subfolder in the archive, I make the same mistake myself! Fixed now tho!
As for selecting boards, at the moment, the Makefile rules all else. The boards option in Preferences is governed by ui.glade. Yes your right. But havent implemented the IDE "editing" the Makefile for a different board yet.. so as of now, the IDE doesnt do anything with choosing board. And if you hard code it into the "mother" Makefile, you can apply the changes you want to all Sketches you create from there on...
As for Adding custom boards.. i could make the preferences dialog have an Advanced tab, where people could manually select all components theyre using? And then just write that info into the Makefile..
Cheers for the feedback on packaging! -Harry