Less hardware dependent development? I'm working on a little Arduino game project that uses neopixel strips as a display. Uploading every code change to the Arduino and testing it on the LEDs is slow and drains hardware lifetime.

Usually I test as much I can using the Serial Monitor, but I can't get it to clear from code which I learned is only possible e.g. when using a terminal. I did that, but it comes with other issues.

Is there a better way to test code on the dev machine instead of the Arduino?
Is there a best practice to have a Serial Monitor (or anything else) act like a display that I can actually refresh/clear? Serial.println() empty lines to scroll the content is not very practical.
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