Propellent Question

Rumple

Can anyone think of a way·to suppress the GetPropellerVersion dialog box?··· If no Propeller is found I'd rather just have my application deal with it rather than pestering the user about it.

Thanks.

StefanL38

an idea for a workaround

your app could check for the dialog-box to be present and if so send a mouseclick to the OK-button of the dialog-box

best regards

Stefan

Rumple

I thought of that...couldn't figure out how to do it in LABView.· A command-line switch would probably be the best solution...

If Jeff Martin still there?

Any forthcoming tweaks to Propellent?

Trying not to sound pesky,
emonk

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)

Rumple,

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with version 1.2 (or higher) of Propellent. I've been testing an early 1.2 incarnation of Jeff's work, and it should fulfill your wishes (which were also my wishes). If it's not officially released soon, you will be able to extract the version I've been using from the loader package on the Propeller Backpack (#28327) product page when this new product appears — "real soon now". Hopefully, I'll have the documentation done by the time the boards are out of customs and sitting in Parallax's warehouse. I'm up to page 15, and I've still got a lot of 'splainin' to do. Yikes!

-Phil

Post Edited (Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)) : 8/22/2009 2:49:06 AM GMT

Rumple

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) said...
Rumple,

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with version 1.2 (or higher) of Propellent. I've been testing an early 1.2 incarnation of Jeff's work, and it should fulfill your wishes (which were also my wishes).
-Phil

Thanks, Phil.· I'll be on the lookout for it.

Jeff Martin

It looks like I'll have this done, wrapped up and released within the next 5 or 6 days.· I'll post an update on this thread when it's ready with more information.

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--Jeff Martin

· Sr. Software Engineer
· Parallax, Inc.

Jeff Martin

Hi Everyone,

Today we're releasing Propellent Library and Executable v1.2.· You can get it from the following link, or attached to this message.

http://www.parallax.com/tabid/442/Default.aspx

Read the "Propellent Library.pdf"·and/or·"Propellent Executable.pdf"·and/or·"Readme.txt" files in the archive to find out the details of the new features.· Here's a summary of the highlights:

• Added persistent setting·(Graphical User Interface mode) that allows configuration of which visual displays will appear during operation.· This is activated via the SetGUIMode (in Library) or the /GUI switch (in·Executable).· The possible settings are:
  • 0 -·ON - (default) show all status and dialog messages visually
  • 1 - STATUS - show only status messages visually
  • 2 - DIALOGS - show only dialog messages (user prompts) visually
  • 3 - OFF - hide all visual messages during normal operation.
• Added standard output messages for all features in Propellent.exe.· These are redirectable to a file using '> file_name.extension' on the command-line.
• Added non-persistent setting in Executable (via /IMAGE switch)·which combines with the /SAVEBINARY or /SAVEEEPROM switches to allow specification of a path and/or filename in which to save the image output, thus overriding the default of saving to the same path/filename as the source (with a .binary or .eeprom extension).· This ability already existed in the Library via the SaveImage routine.
• Updated Library's GetPropellerVersion routine to return a PChar instead of a LongWord.· The returned z-string contains the port and version of a detected Propeller, or an error message if none detected.
• Fixed two minor bugs.

So, for those using the executable, you can now do something like the following:

Propellent /compile /gui off "source_path_and_file" > results.txt

and it will compile the Propeller application "source_path_and_file" with no visual status or dialogs and log the outcome in "results.txt."

Or you can do the following:

Propellent /gui off "source_path_and_file" > results.txt

and it will do the same as above but will search for and download to a connected Propeller.

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--Jeff Martin

· Sr. Software Engineer
· Parallax, Inc.

Microcontrolled

Whats Propellent?

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Computers are microcontrolled.

Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.

But you·can·call me micro.

If it's not Parallax then don't even bother.

I have changed my avatar so that I will no longer be confused with others who use generic avatars (and I'm more of a Prop head then a BS2 nut, anyway)

Bob Lawrence (VE1RLL)

@microcontrolled re: Whats Propellent?

From the Propellent PDF:

The Parallax Propellent software is a Windows-based tool for compiling and downloading to the Parallax Propeller chip. Propellent is available as both a library (Propellent.dll) and as an executable
(Propellent.exe).

• The Propellent Library (DLL) is for software developers to link into applications enabling immediate support of the Propeller using the same functions as the Parallax-made Propeller Tool development
software.

• The Propellent Executable (EXE) is a program that includes the Propellent Library within it and provides many of the same functions to anyone wishing for command-line support of the Propeller chip.

Microcontrolled

Thanks!

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Computers are microcontrolled.

Robots are microcontrolled.
I am microcontrolled.

But you·can·call me micro.

If it's not Parallax then don't even bother.

I have changed my avatar so that I will no longer be confused with others who use generic avatars (and I'm more of a Prop head then a BS2 nut, anyway)

Rayman

Jeff: I was just thinking that it might be nice if you could invoke PST using the Propellant library... Maybe allow it to be told which serial port to use and to start using some baud... Could PST have a dll interface too?

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

Jeff Martin

Rayman said...
Jeff: I was just thinking that it might be nice if you could invoke PST using the Propellant library... Maybe allow it to be told which serial port to use and to start using some baud... Could PST have a dll interface too?

Hi Rayman,

Interesting idea.· The command-line interface would be pretty straight forward (for PST, I mean) but there would be a little more work involved to keep just a single instance running (ie: after PST is run, another execution of Propellent would naturally launch a second instance of PST, but that's not what we want in most cases).

I'll note this idea and see if I can squeeze it in soon.· Thanks for the suggestion!

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--Jeff Martin

· Sr. Software Engineer
· Parallax, Inc.

Rayman

It might be nice... I'm dreaming of finding time to work on my own kind of editor... But, if I could launch PST, then I could think about adding in some simple debugging...

BTW: Does PST support any escape codes or anything, so I can move the cursor around, or at least clear the screen? Is there any help file or documentation for PST that would tell me?

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My Prop Info&Apps: ·http://www.rayslogic.com/propeller/propeller.htm

Jeff Martin

Rayman said...
It might be nice... I'm dreaming of finding time to work on my own kind of editor... But, if I could launch PST, then I could think about adding in some simple debugging...

BTW: Does PST support any escape codes or anything, so I can move the cursor around, or at least clear the screen? Is there any help file or documentation for PST that would tell me?

Yes, PST supports control codes to do cursor positioning, clearing to the end of line, etc.· Open PST, click on Prefs... and select the Function tab to see all the possibilities.· You can also disable any of them by unchecking their checkbox (just remember you did it the next time you go to run a program that relies on those). [noparse]:)[/noparse]

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--Jeff Martin

· Sr. Software Engineer
· Parallax, Inc.

jazzed

Having to manually switch programs is certainly a big P.I.T.A. I've done several programs where the loader/console change is transparent to the user. A few of them use Propellent which is nice if used from a command console. I wrote my own ram loader and use BSTC now. Those BSTC list files are just wonderful [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Too bad PST doesn't properly interpret "\r\n" or "\n\r". Oh well. Someone can describe a check-box combination that works?

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--Steve

Propeller Tools

• Propalyzer: Propeller PC Logic Analyzer
• BMA: An on-chip PASM Debugger
• SPUD: Spin Source Level Debugger

dMajo

Jeff Martin (Parallax) said...

Rayman said...
Jeff: I was just thinking that it might be nice if you could invoke PST using the Propellant library... Maybe allow it to be told which serial port to use and to start using some baud... Could PST have a dll interface too?

Hi Rayman,

Interesting idea.· The command-line interface would be pretty straight forward (for PST, I mean) but there would be a little more work involved to keep just a single instance running (ie: after PST is run, another execution of Propellent would naturally launch a second instance of PST, but that's not what we want in most cases).

I'll note this idea and see if I can squeeze it in soon.· Thanks for the suggestion!

You can use windows API calls to see if it is an other istance running. If it's running set focus to the other one kill this one. You can do it before any window is showed (first lines of code). BTW you have already solved this in the last release of the PropTool.

Usually I tend to do all by myself but one of the few third-parties tools/controls I am using are the ELTIMA ones. I have found them good and useful both as stand-alone products and integrated into my softwares. I use this ones:
-Virtual Serial Ports Driver
-Virtual Serial Port ActiveX Control
-Serial to Ethernet Connector
-Serial Splitter
-Serial Port Monitor
I have used them in the industrial field where many equipments (sensors/instruments/controllers) relies on serial data transmission and several applications may need the data from the same equipment (serial splitter works greatly here with mixable real/virtual ports) and I never had problems

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· Propeller Object Exchange (last Publications / Updates)