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Do you mean in assembly? If you just mean C, then if you’re already in embedded then I’d say a few years ago it was easy. These days it’s super easy - tools like STM32CubeMX will allow you to get even custom hardware up and running in no time.

It will even spit out multiple project types - everything from ARM Keil/MDK/uVision to just a simple makefile.

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I disagree that GUI tools like STM32CubeMX are useful. They end up being a crutch that end up adding increasingly complex wizard driven autogeneration, rather than just exposing the configuration in easy to consume ways. Sure, you can get something running fast, but it’s incredibly difficult to move from “blink a led via this template project” to “build a useful project integrating multiple peripherals”.

I think there’s some actually interesting work being done with standardization like SVD files, but too many vendors treat them like second class citizens compared to their bulky code gen solutions.

I think it’s decent - configuring a clock tree and initialising the peripherals by hand might be a good way to learn the chip but in terms of rapid prototyping I’ll take the GUI driven leg up any day.

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