Is STM8 recomended for beginners?

[rabbi141]

I have experience with PIC and AVR microcontrollers, but they lack the good debug features of the STM8 series. Furthermore, these microcontrollers aren't cheap. While looking for simple and inexpensive chips, I keep coming across the STM8 series.

Mastering a new microcontroller takes time. I'm confused about learning the STM8 because STMicroelectronics is recommending their STM32 series, which uses the ARM Cortex-M core. This recommendation makes me wonder if investing time in the STM8 is a good idea, or if it would be better to learn the more widely-supported and future-proof STM32 family.

[Andrew Neil]

On the state of STM8 tool support: 

https://community.st.com/t5/stm8-mcus/st-visual-develop-updates/td-p/763922

"the outdated IDE creates unnecessary barriers for beginners, often discouraging them early in the learning process"

[DarekR]

Unfortunately, ST has not updated STVD for a long time. Which is scandalous. Works fine with windows 7, W10 64bit I failed to install. To solve these problems I have on virtualbox W7 STD and STVP, on top of that on linux Ubuntu. STVD with the Cosmic compiler works well, although it has its whims. STVP without problems, but not at the same time with STVD. I recently made a project for STM8L152R8. SPI, graphic LCD, ADC, extensive menu, almost 60kB batch.

---

Discussion of installing STVD on Windows 10 split to separate thread.

[Andrew Neil]

---

@DarekR wrote:

ST has not updated STVD for a long time. Which is scandalous

---

But it aligns with what @Peter BENSCH said in the first reply.

See also what @mƎALLEm said here and here.