simpletools.h no such file or directory

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 13:05

I've just installed the latest SimpleIDE from the Parallax site and downloaded the "Learn" library. I've pointed the Library directory to the "Learn" folder. I've created a project in my project directory, which consists of this program:

#include "simpletools.h"

int main()
{
  pause(1000);
  print("Hello!");
}

When I build, I get the error stated in the title. I checked the "Learn" folder, and "simpletools.h" is there. So what's going on?

-Phil

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 13:38

So now, instead of trying to build a project from my own projects directory, I opened Hello Message.side from the Learn folder and tried to build it. I get this error message: Check source for bad function call or global variable name `_print' What is that supposed to mean? I'm calling print, but there's no mention of _print anywhere in the program.
_______________

My "out of the box experience" with GCC is, so far, pretty discouraging. On Wednesday I'm supposed to begin helping a high school class with some robotics stuff. The ActivityBot is a candidate for teaching programming. But these kinds of problems will make it a non-starter. If I can't get the simplest things to run by following instructions, I don't see how a roomful of non-programmers is going to cope.

-Phil

Roy Eltham · 2013-10-20 15:44

One important step I missed the first time I installed SimpleIDE was that you need to run the program once to let it perform a copy of the Workspace folder to your documents folder. Then you installed the learn folder over top of that copy of the learn folder. Steve explained that this is needed to get around differences in OSes and to make things simpler for more people.

If you did that, then another thing that might cause an issue (that I ran into with one of my machines) is that if your Documents folder is in a non-standard place (I use the library feature of Win7 to put it on a network share), then the copy step on initial run will fail. You instead have to do the copy yourself manually before first run, then do the first run of SimpleIDE, then unpack the learn folder over the existing one in your documents folder.

Not sure if this will help your specific case, but I did have similar issues before I figured these things out. I had only skimmed the install steps on learn.parallax.com... my bad there.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 16:29

Okay, thanks, Roy. I'm gonna start all over and see what happens. Stay tuned ...

-Phil

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 16:42

Okay, starting afresh went better. One thing I did not do the first time was to "use folder names" when unzipping to the Learn directory, so everything had gotten jumbled together. At least now I'm able to compile and run an example program.

-Phil

jazzed · 2013-10-20 17:29

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) wrote: »

Okay, starting afresh went better. One thing I did not do the first time was to "use folder names" when unzipping to the Learn directory, so everything had gotten jumbled together. At least now I'm able to compile and run an example program.

-Phil

Hi Phil,

Maybe you can illustrate what you mean by "use folder names" ... I don't recall such an option in the SimpleIDE installer.

Dave Hein · 2013-10-20 19:36

"use folder names" is an option in WinZip. If you don't specify this option all of the files from the various directories in the zip file will be extracted into one directory. It's usually a good idea to use the folder names in the zip file.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 21:41

What Dave said. Here's the screenshot from unpacking to the Learn directory and that all-important checkbox:

attachment.php?attachmentid=104483&d=1382330457

attachment.php?attachmentid=104483&d=1382330457

When this box is checked, WinZip creates the necessary subdirectories in the target directory.

-Phil

jazzed · 2013-10-20 22:36

I see.

So you encountered a learn folder procedural problem not caused by SimpleIDE or Propeller-GCC.

Thanks for explaining.

Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi) · 2013-10-20 22:54

jazzed wrote:

So you encountered a learn folder procedural problem not caused by SimpleIDE or Propeller-GCC.

In part, yes. My other "error", according to Roy's observation, was copying the new Learn stuff before running, then exiting, SIDE the first time.

What I have not tried yet with the fresh install is building projects from my own projects directory, not in "My Documents" but in "C:\jobs\simpleide." (Everything in c:\jobs\ gets backed up every night. "My Documents" is just a throw-away directory on my system. Too much junk defaults there that I don't really need to save.)

-Phil

jazzed · 2013-10-21 08:58

One of my highest priorities is the Simple Libraries folder distribution update.

That is, today users must follow instructions for an update (Gag! you mean read and pay attention to detail?).

The desire is to detect whether or not a folder exists and act appropriately: https://code.google.com/p/propside/issues/detail?id=181

The default folder will remain "user Documents/SimpleIDE" because it is "Simple" and works well on all O/S.

Users can change the library folder in the options after install. That does not change the default location however.

simpletools.h no such file or directory

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