Is there a recommended alternate IDE than Arduino for code development?
Right now you need the Arduino IDE to compile, however there’s a setting in the preferences to use an “External IDE” so you can do your editing in something nicer and then compile in the Arduino IDE.
I don’t have any recommendations for something else to use. I’m a vi guy myself but don’t want to spark any controversy
Try Atom or Sublime with an Arduino package.
I changed over from Particle to the Hologram Dash. The workflow is much better for me. I installed Visual Micro into Visual Studio and can have intellisense and debug features with variable watch etc and NO cloud compiling. It is fast and easy to find and fix issues. The hardware is similar to Electron but with more features and $10 USD cheaper.