VS Code IDE for C/C++ when PlatformIO is installed

Hello,

I’m using PlatformIO for at least 2 years replacing Arduino IDE for my development on Arduino board and equivalent board.

For a specific development, I need to write some light C program that I will run on consol on my desktop computer. So naturally I want to use VS Code as an C IDE to develop these small programs.

For some other reasons, I have fully uninstalled VS Code. Then I’ve set up again VS Code. And firstly I’ve configure VS Code as an IDE for C development following this tutorials (with MinGW-w64 toolchain):

I’ve writen my C code, compile them from VS Code IDE and run them: it’s work.

But then, I’ve set up again PlatformIO in VS Code. And the trouble I have now is that the installation of PlatformIO in VS Code made the play button in the top right corner of the editor disappear (the button of the following picture):


So now, I’m not sure to uderstand why this button disappear and how to compile C code for native programming ? Is there a way to have it back ? By example by “deactivation” of PlatformIO when I need to do some native programming ? Or other means ?

I already saw the following topics / help page. But what I understand is that I have to create a PlatformIO project and compile it for “Native Platform”. But I’m not fan of these solution: creating a PlatformIO projet will create a whole associate tree. But the native program I’ve to write are very simple and are contained in one .c file, so I do not need a complete PlatformIO tree project.

Thank for your help.

Math

https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/platforms/native.html