Less hardware dependent development?
You can unit test your code by creating stubs of the functions you are calling, like replacing a couple of includes with their dumb counterparts.
My friend Jan Beayens did something very valuable on that front and he is also the main author of a good replacement for the Arduino IDE when you start needing some more advanced capabilities: Sloeber is the product name and it also contains an improved version of the serial monitor with clear and scroll lock capabilities.

Go check it out.

Disclaimer : I'm a contributor of the project