i've not explored the stm core in sufficient depth.
but if i configure the dependencies in eclipse CDT, i've been able to get the official core to build with the sketch.
the makefiles are 'auto' generated by eclipse CDT. i think the various eclipse based addons (e.g.
sloeber, and
system workbench improves further on that)
as for libmaple, i've actually moved towards makefiles but pretty much used it only personally
https://gist.github.com/ag88/a6a02acbc7 ... 7c0f310268
the motivations of using a makefile is that configuring the dependencies in eclipse (defines, includes and source directories) can be quite tedious.
but i think it is possible to export that configuration and import it in another project with the more recent release.
but with a makefile when i wanted to start a new sketch (project), i simply copy an existing makefile and start making changes. hence, it is considerably less tedious.
in terms of the libraries, my personal habit is to copy them as sub folders into the source folder in eclipse.
so long as the dependencies are correctly referenced, compilation would find them and build the sketch / libraries / core into the elf and bin
i took quite a while to create the libmaple makefile that actually works (for myself), but this basically associate all the various (libmaple) dependencies together with the sketch.
i'd think it should be possible to make a makefile for the official core too, just that it'd take one some effort to work it
a good thing about environments like eclipse is that if you bother to configure the dependencies in the ide (defines, includes, source ), jumping from point to point in the call stack or referenced variables is much easier. in that way it is much easier for one to drill down say in the call stack all the way into the methods or functions and figure things out especially when one encounter issues or is trying to understand something about it
and if one has the st-link v2 (or a jtag dongle) one can literally debug, step codes and examine variables / registers.
this requires some additional stacks e.g. gdb etc. instead of eclipse, i often use an external tool DDD
https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/
as i find it more lightweight
but well made add ons in eclipse e.g
sloeber or
system workbench, probably integrates it all and debug goes into the eclipse IDE. pretty much like the professional IDE tools
and the usual thing i'd do is when things are pretty much straightened up, i copy the same things into a sketch folder and build in arduino IDE to see that things works just the same