I get ya, Stan. In other words the MP3 format transports easily from one platform to another. So the Arduino code might transport how? I can't say that I know of anything other than the IDE to do it right now. But I've only scratched the surface of what's available for the Arduino. So I'm sure there are other ways to load it up.
John's MP3 player module is an example of something that might help with this situation; how to load up the Arduino without all the scary stuff about programming and the unknowns of the environment (drivers, downloads, IDE, blah, blah). Something simple like an SD card reader might be just the thing.
I have not had a lot of trouble setting up the Arduino IDE on my Windows computer but I've been around computer science since 1971 and started programming in C in 1980. The Arduino uses a version of C++ which is an object oriented variant. In my opinion, this stuff should be scary; there's a lot to it. But the Arduino community has done a great job in making it available for mass consumption.
My interest in this hobby is more about the electronics than the trains. My ideal layout would skip all the scenery and instead expose all the electronics behind it's operation. Oh sure, I like trains too!
Let me do some research on the SD card readers and see what that's all about. Maybe timing data as well as new programming could be transferred to the JGL project through this small familiar device.
