Despite a wealth of tutorials for setting up and writing code for the ESP8266 WiFi module, there has not been much of anything on programming this cheap wireless module with the Arduino IDE ...

The Arduino IDE is a user-friendly platform that simplifies the process of writing, compiling, and uploading code to microcontrollers.

The Beta version for Arduin IDE 2.0 was launched back in Spring 2021, and now - following feedback received from the Arduino community - the release is 'stable'.