@BradC: I think I found another bug. I set the COM port to 4 and it says that it found the Prop. Then I close the port selection dialog and hit F10 and it says the Prop cannot be found on COM3. It's like it's forgetting the port setting and going back to the default. This is after I did a port scan and only COM1 and COM4 were available.
▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ ·"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.· My wish has come true.· I no longer know how to use my telephone."
Ken Peterson said...
@BradC: I think I found another bug. I set the COM port to 4 and it says that it found the Prop. Then I close the port selection dialog and hit F10 and it says the Prop cannot be found on COM3. It's like it's forgetting the port setting and going back to the default. This is after I did a port scan and only COM1 and COM4 were available.
Yes, I can see precisely why that occurs. I'm not entirely surprised about the odd bug given the amount of significant changes I made to the port handling during the last revision. A workaround for now is to set the com port in the ide preferences dialog. I'll figure out hte best way to get it fixed for the next version. Thanks for the headsup [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Ken Paterson said...
As a Linux user, I have to say you hit the nail on the head with BST. The Propeller was one of the few remaining reasons to keep Windows on my computer. One more gone!
I second that. I'm using OS X and my experiece of programming the Propeller has improved tremendously since I stopped having to use Windows. Now I don't have to go through the extra step of making sure my Prop files on the virtual machine are getting backed up. And now it's so much easier to use Quartz Composer to visual the debug/telemetry data coming off the Prop.
Brad, thanks a lot. You may be wondering how many people use and appreciate your software. I use it every day. I know there's several linux users here, and probably a lot more OS X users than one might think.
Cheers Jay! I seem to ge t about 30 downloads of the OSX version, 27 of Linux and 10-15 of Win32 for each release. It's nice to see other people getting some use from it [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
re: cant connect BST to propeller in LINUX via USB cable and Parallax Prop Plug
BradC wrote: Well, it's trying to detect the propeller on /dev/ttyS3 which is not a USB-serial port. It sounds like perhaps your USB-serial device is going away or unreliable.
From a terminal try
ls -la /dev/ttyUSB*
and see what it says. Mine comes up with /dev/ttyUSB0 here.
Well, with this 64bit debian system, now trying BST 0.14
there's no /dev/ttyUSB or USB anything
For everything else (USB sticks, etc) the USB system works fine.
I'm sure its a system configuration thing, for any Linux experts
out there, how can I create a permanent /dev/something that I
can get BST to connect to manually? maybe something like
mknod ttyPROP c 188 0 (or whatever works, I don't care I
just want to mothball the Windoze box)...
Well, with this 64bit debian system, now trying BST 0.14
there's no /dev/ttyUSB or USB anything
For everything else (USB sticks, etc) the USB system works fine.
That sounds very much like you don't have the driver (or it's not loaded/loading for some reason). udev on my Debian 64 bit system ensures the driver is loaded and the /dev/ttyUSB* node is created when I plug my propeller stuff in.
You won't get any prop-plug to show up unless the device is there and working.
Secondly, what do you get in dmesg when you plug the device in?
[noparse][[/noparse]527242.658221] ftdi_sio 3-1:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected
[noparse][[/noparse]527242.658271] ftdi_sio: Detected FT232RL
[noparse][[/noparse]527242.658470] usb 3-1: FTDI USB Serial Device converter now attached to ttyUSB0
For laughs, what kernel version are you running?
brad@srv:~$ uname -a
Linux srv 2.6.27.4 #10 SMP Mon Oct 27 08:59:56 GST 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
1) Archive does not include files included in the DAT section.
Yep! Well spotted. I never considered that to be honest.
Oldbitcollector said...
2) If the included file pushes over the memory limit, BST crashes.
Ok, that should not happen. I'll make sure it's fixed. I know _why_ its crashing, just not why it's not erroring out before it overruns an array and tramples all over RAM it's not supposed to touch
Oldbitcollector said...
3) If "Compiler" option doesn't seem to include the included files.
I'm not sure what you mean here. Can you elaborate please?
Nice catches, I'll make sure they are all fixed in the next revision.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
When I use the "Compiler" option to get a sense of how much memory I'm using,
I would like to see the included files as well.
Oh, one more.. When recovering I have to re-save the file to send it to the Propeller.
Lately I've been getting alot of "can't find the file" when compiling. Typically resaving
the file has gotten me around the issue.
Oldbitcollector said...
When I use the "Compiler" option to get a sense of how much memory I'm using,
I would like to see the included files as well.
Do you mean you'd like the included file as a separate entity? It should currently be included as part of the program section currently (as propeller tool does I believe) as it becomes part of the DAT section. If it's not then I have a bug.
Oldbitcollector said...
Oh, one more.. When recovering I have to re-save the file to send it to the Propeller.
Lately I've been getting alot of "can't find the file" when compiling. Typically resaving
the file has gotten me around the issue.
Thanks
OBC
Yes, I did that by design. From memory the reasoning went along the lines of "If we are recovering from a crash and the file was not saved to disk, make them save the file before they can work with it". If you think this is wrong then I can always revisit the logic. It's not a difficult change, just requires a re-think about desirable workflows.
I'm sorry it crashes enough for you that this is a problem. I'll try to get that sorted.
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Brad, that problem I was having with float() went away when I reset the propeller. The serial term was sending out garbled text if I just left it connected and loaded ram with the change in code. Strange, 'cause it doesn't usually do that after loading the ram.
This is a great tool. I've been having very good luck with it. I like that you have the terminal in the tool, and you can program without disconnecting.
Anyway, the reason I'm posting is that I'm getting a "Unknown Token EOL" error when I try and compile. It just hangs bst and spits that line over and over on the command line.
OK, I think I figured out the EOL problem. I was referencing an undeclared variable in a case statement, but that shouldn't crash the compiler. I hope this helps.
linuxvolts said...
OK, I think I figured out the EOL problem. I was referencing an undeclared variable in a case statement, but that shouldn't crash the compiler. I hope this helps.
-Paul
Not really. Can you attach some code that makes it lock up so I can fix the compiler please?
Glad you got it to work though [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Now if I can figure out how to link lrzsz to /dev/ttyUSB0, we'll have a perfect way to add protocols to Brad's Serial Terminal. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
I've been working on Y-modem in the background, so it's kinda on the way but very slow at the moment. I did think about spawning lrzsz as a terminal plug-in, but then things got ugly with Windows. I figure just adding Y-Modem and possibly X-Modem send/receive is probably enough for now. Z-Modem and true Kermit is probably overkill for transferring files back and forward.
Glad propterminal works like that under linux. Being able to open serial ports in a non-exclusive fashion makes all kinds of cool stuff possible though. It can be tricky to handle the data coming back from the port as you don't always know which listener is going to get it.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
new user here, I have a MacBook with no serial ports [noparse]:([/noparse] so I can't use it to upload the code to the prop, but I do use it to write code and look at files from my searches of the internet. This is a great tool and just wanted to chime in and say thank you! My vote for a new feature would be USB support!
I'm not sure about OSX, but in Linux the FTDI USB chip shows up as a serial device /dev/ttyUSBx, and I know there is OSX support for the FTDI chip. So it seems like it should work.
Thank you... I will look into that tomorrow when I get next to my USB to USB mini cable I left at the office! Errr! Now I can't work on this all night. However, I did run down to best buy and pickup a USB -> serial (although your solution is better if it works) and am trying to get this to work with the Propeller Professional Development Board. I bought a dynex USB to Serial cable and then installed the drivers for it and I can see it in the System Profiler:
USB-Serial Controller:
Version: 3.00
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
Product ID: 0x2303
Vendor ID: 0x067b
However, BST will not auto find. No problem, I figure a little look in the /dev dir will find me my path. So I run ls -la /dev/tty.* and see this:
So I confirm buy unpluging and replugging the serial port that the /dev/tty.PL2303-0000201A is what I need.
BST >> Compile >> Detect Propller = No dice... Click yes >> Propeller Port Configuration >> typing the path manually and then click test... "Propeller Not Found" in a message box.
So no dice. Any thoughts out there? Again all help is much apprciated.
Follow up, I think my problem is that my Serial Port of the Professional Development Board is not hooked up to the Propeller by default, you have to run the wires. I am not sure if this is possible or if the only way to deal with it is via the USB? Anyone know how the wire this up? It has an on board MAX3232E driver built inline with it.
So I confirm buy unpluging and replugging the serial port that the /dev/tty.PL2303-0000201A is what I need.
BST >> Compile >> Detect Propller = No dice... Click yes >> Propeller Port Configuration >> typing the path manually and then click test... "Propeller Not Found" in a message box.
Yeah, it won't detect that port.
I'll add an autodetect for the PL series units in the next revision (I have one here to test with).
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Thanks for the update. I managed to get things working with the FTDI driver. Paul thanks for the nudge in the right direction! I wrote my programs to the prop.
Hi, Folks Long time No See, Looks like I've almost missed out on a Mac Version of Prop Tool. Great work BradC, Oldbitcollector. BTW. I'm just days of taking the first half of my CompTIA A+ certification exam. Boy am I nervous. Thanks,Koodos,and Happy Holidays to All of you My friends here in the Propeller Forum.
Thanks! brad. Excellent work. I haven't use BST since about version 3.0 but everything works great. The search for propeller feature is working real slick. No problems so far.
Bob
PS : I using Ubuntu 8.04 - the Hardy Heron - released in April 2008.
Hi Brad. I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but is there any plans to have user-definable tabs? As in, I want all my tabs to be two spaces. As it is now, when I hit tab it goes to the same column as the last character in the previous line. I don't know if that's by design. But I've been getting a lot of unexpected behavior, 'cause I didn't realize the compiler was seeing an indent that I didn't. Even better, although I realize this is a unrealistic, would be to have the indent indicators like the prop tool.
Jay Kickliter said...
Hi Brad. I'm not sure if this has been brought up, but is there any plans to have user-definable tabs? As in, I want all my tabs to be two spaces. As it is now, when I hit tab it goes to the same column as the last character in the previous line. I don't know if that's by design. But I've been getting a lot of unexpected behavior, 'cause I didn't realize the compiler was seeing an indent that I didn't. Even better, although I realize this is a unrealistic, would be to have the indent indicators like the prop tool.
thanks,
Jay
Block indicators are something I've been working at on and off. I have a very rough prototype already working (it's been in the code for 2 releases now - just disabled). It's a complete headache and it's going to take me _ages_ to get them looking usable though. I need to really re-think how I put the whole editor/highlighter together to try and make the block indicators easier to draw.
Tabs are something I have control over. I default them to 8 spaces as that is what the compiler does but I guess I can add an option to change them fairly easily.
Also, the tab behaviour with regard to going to the last character on the line is something I did deliberately. I can add an option to turn it off.
I must admit these are things I've not really thought about, but I can add "tab size" and "disable smart tabs" as options in the next revision, no problem at all.
I've been somewhat snowed lately, so I've not had a chance to get the ide quirks belted out as quickly as I'd like. I have fixed all the compiler bugs though. I'll see if I can get something updated out in the next week or so.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
I've always been a fan of using Tab characters in the source code explicitly for block indentation. Each Tab is the next indentation depth. No spaces. No partial indentation. Comments are exempt if started on the first character of the line.
I really had a dislike for Borland's smart tabs when I bumped into such sources. The mix of both tabs and spaces would totally mess up the visual formatting.
I know that this is not what is being talked about here but it would really suit Spin sources I believe.
Comments
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·"I have always wished that my computer would be as easy to use as my telephone.· My wish has come true.· I no longer know how to use my telephone."
- Bjarne Stroustrup
Yes, I can see precisely why that occurs. I'm not entirely surprised about the odd bug given the amount of significant changes I made to the port handling during the last revision. A workaround for now is to set the com port in the ide preferences dialog. I'll figure out hte best way to get it fixed for the next version. Thanks for the headsup [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Cheers Jay! I seem to ge t about 30 downloads of the OSX version, 27 of Linux and 10-15 of Win32 for each release. It's nice to see other people getting some use from it [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
BradC wrote: Well, it's trying to detect the propeller on /dev/ttyS3 which is not a USB-serial port. It sounds like perhaps your USB-serial device is going away or unreliable.
From a terminal try
ls -la /dev/ttyUSB*
and see what it says. Mine comes up with /dev/ttyUSB0 here.
Well, with this 64bit debian system, now trying BST 0.14
there's no /dev/ttyUSB or USB anything
For everything else (USB sticks, etc) the USB system works fine.
I'm sure its a system configuration thing, for any Linux experts
out there, how can I create a permanent /dev/something that I
can get BST to connect to manually? maybe something like
mknod ttyPROP c 188 0 (or whatever works, I don't care I
just want to mothball the Windoze box)...
Doug
That sounds very much like you don't have the driver (or it's not loaded/loading for some reason). udev on my Debian 64 bit system ensures the driver is loaded and the /dev/ttyUSB* node is created when I plug my propeller stuff in.
Firstly, is your ftdi driver loaded?
You won't get any prop-plug to show up unless the device is there and working.
Secondly, what do you get in dmesg when you plug the device in?
For laughs, what kernel version are you running?
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Found a couple more issues...
1) Archive does not include files included in the DAT section.
2) If the included file pushes over the memory limit, BST crashes.
3) If "Compiler" option doesn't seem to include the included files.
Thanks!!
OBC
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Yep! Well spotted. I never considered that to be honest.
Ok, that should not happen. I'll make sure it's fixed. I know _why_ its crashing, just not why it's not erroring out before it overruns an array and tramples all over RAM it's not supposed to touch
I'm not sure what you mean here. Can you elaborate please?
Nice catches, I'll make sure they are all fixed in the next revision.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
I would like to see the included files as well.
Oh, one more.. When recovering I have to re-save the file to send it to the Propeller.
Lately I've been getting alot of "can't find the file" when compiling. Typically resaving
the file has gotten me around the issue.
Thanks
OBC
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Updates to the Cookbook are now posted to: Propeller.warrantyvoid.us
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Do you mean you'd like the included file as a separate entity? It should currently be included as part of the program section currently (as propeller tool does I believe) as it becomes part of the DAT section. If it's not then I have a bug.
Yes, I did that by design. From memory the reasoning went along the lines of "If we are recovering from a crash and the file was not saved to disk, make them save the file before they can work with it". If you think this is wrong then I can always revisit the logic. It's not a difficult change, just requires a re-think about desirable workflows.
I'm sorry it crashes enough for you that this is a problem. I'll try to get that sorted.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=769509
Now if I can figure out how to link lrzsz to /dev/ttyUSB0, we'll have a perfect way to add protocols to Brad's Serial Terminal. [noparse]:)[/noparse]
OBC
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This is a great tool. I've been having very good luck with it. I like that you have the terminal in the tool, and you can program without disconnecting.
Anyway, the reason I'm posting is that I'm getting a "Unknown Token EOL" error when I try and compile. It just hangs bst and spits that line over and over on the command line.
thanks,
Paul
-Paul
Not really. Can you attach some code that makes it lock up so I can fix the compiler please?
Glad you got it to work though [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
I've been working on Y-modem in the background, so it's kinda on the way but very slow at the moment. I did think about spawning lrzsz as a terminal plug-in, but then things got ugly with Windows. I figure just adding Y-Modem and possibly X-Modem send/receive is probably enough for now. Z-Modem and true Kermit is probably overkill for transferring files back and forward.
Glad propterminal works like that under linux. Being able to open serial ports in a non-exclusive fashion makes all kinds of cool stuff possible though. It can be tricky to handle the data coming back from the port as you don't always know which listener is going to get it.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Can I send you the code directly? My email is pthomas8589, it's a gmail account.
thanks,
Paul
sure
brad at fnarfbargle.com
Appreciated, thanks [noparse]:)[/noparse]
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Cheers,
Gregg
I'm not sure about OSX, but in Linux the FTDI USB chip shows up as a serial device /dev/ttyUSBx, and I know there is OSX support for the FTDI chip. So it seems like it should work.
thanks,
Paul
Thank you... I will look into that tomorrow when I get next to my USB to USB mini cable I left at the office! Errr! Now I can't work on this all night. However, I did run down to best buy and pickup a USB -> serial (although your solution is better if it works) and am trying to get this to work with the Propeller Professional Development Board. I bought a dynex USB to Serial cable and then installed the drivers for it and I can see it in the System Profiler:
USB-Serial Controller:
Version: 3.00
Bus Power (mA): 500
Speed: Up to 12 Mb/sec
Manufacturer: Prolific Technology Inc.
Product ID: 0x2303
Vendor ID: 0x067b
However, BST will not auto find. No problem, I figure a little look in the /dev dir will find me my path. So I run ls -la /dev/tty.* and see this:
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-Modem /dev/tty.PL2303-0000201A
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
Link love for the guy that wrote the driver: http://sourceforge.net/projects/osx-pl2303/
So I confirm buy unpluging and replugging the serial port that the /dev/tty.PL2303-0000201A is what I need.
BST >> Compile >> Detect Propller = No dice... Click yes >> Propeller Port Configuration >> typing the path manually and then click test... "Propeller Not Found" in a message box.
So no dice. Any thoughts out there? Again all help is much apprciated.
Cheers,
Gregg
Cheers,
Gregg
Yeah, it won't detect that port.
I'll add an autodetect for the PL series units in the next revision (I have one here to test with).
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
Post Edited (BradC) : 12/12/2008 6:58:54 AM GMT
Thanks for the update. I managed to get things working with the FTDI driver. Paul thanks for the nudge in the right direction! I wrote my programs to the prop.
Thanks again for all your help...
Cheers,
Gregg
Thanks! brad. Excellent work. I haven't use BST since about version 3.0 but everything works great. The search for propeller feature is working real slick.
Bob
PS : I using Ubuntu 8.04 - the Hardy Heron - released in April 2008.
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thanks,
Jay
Block indicators are something I've been working at on and off. I have a very rough prototype already working (it's been in the code for 2 releases now - just disabled). It's a complete headache and it's going to take me _ages_ to get them looking usable though. I need to really re-think how I put the whole editor/highlighter together to try and make the block indicators easier to draw.
Tabs are something I have control over. I default them to 8 spaces as that is what the compiler does but I guess I can add an option to change them fairly easily.
Also, the tab behaviour with regard to going to the last character on the line is something I did deliberately. I can add an option to turn it off.
I must admit these are things I've not really thought about, but I can add "tab size" and "disable smart tabs" as options in the next revision, no problem at all.
I've been somewhat snowed lately, so I've not had a chance to get the ide quirks belted out as quickly as I'd like. I have fixed all the compiler bugs though. I'll see if I can get something updated out in the next week or so.
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Cardinal Fang! Fetch the comfy chair.
I really had a dislike for Borland's smart tabs when I bumped into such sources. The mix of both tabs and spaces would totally mess up the visual formatting.
I know that this is not what is being talked about here but it would really suit Spin sources I believe.
Looking forward to your next release..
Found a couple chunks of code that seem to tie BST into a knot.
Hydra Repeat/Simon
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=682892
Compile Error
Lines 96, 134, and 162
and the more recent 8bc Graphics Driver
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?p=770913
"$FE-" is an invalid interger
(I'm guessing line 163: gr.color($FE-(cyc2-i)//5) )
OBC
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