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Simple IDE tools

John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
edited 2014-02-10 06:24 in Propeller 1
I've been working on C for Prop in Simple IDE and am used to some tools that I don't see in SIDE. I'm just checking in case I am overlooking something obvious. I'm not complaining but it would be a drag if I found out later there was a way to do these things. No hits when I searched the SIDE pdf other than debug was listed as a planned feature

Debug mode with step-by-step execution
Block comment / uncomment
Watch window

Are these tools likely to be coming down the pike or can they be added now from 3rd party?

Thanks.

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-02-07 00:43
    I always thought SimpleIDE was intended to be a simple tool for beginners. Think Aduino IDE simple. Obviously it has moved beyond that.

    I have to let it's author speak for the road ahead of SimpleIDE but personally I think it would be a mistake to clutter it up with millions of IDE features. Requests for this or that favourite IDE feature are coming all the time. For those who want BigComplexIDE there is always the likes of Eclipse.

    I have never tried it but I believe propgcc supports GDB. as such it should be possible to do step by step debugging and have watch windows etc using the DDD tool or similar GUI for GDB. https://www.gnu.org/software/ddd/

    Personally I have never used debuggers like that on embedded systems. Large parts of a C application can be written and debugged on the PC where it is a lot quicker going and more convenient. Those parts of the code the interface to hardware are often small enough that it does not take a lot to get them running without a debugger. Often a debugger in these situations is of no help as many of the problems you will have are timing related or to do with weird interactions between processes. It's very hard to debug those problems with a debugger and as so as you use one you change the run time situation.
  • John KauffmanJohn Kauffman Posts: 653
    edited 2014-02-07 05:24
    Thanks.
    I see your point on debugging not working for hardest embedded problems. My thinking would be to use on simpler level.
    I'm looking into https://code.google.com/p/propgcc-eclipse-plug-in/ but it seems not much activity with it.
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2014-02-07 06:11
    I don't know about that plugin. At least for Code::Blocks and Netbeans you don't need any custom code: just some setup. You can find instructions here. Personally, I use Netbeans for my PropGCC code.

    Currently, the only PropGCC debugger option is the GDB command line. Instructions can be found here (I believe that it's now in the main branch, BTW). I've tried to get it running with Code::Blocks and Netbeans, but the Propeller GDB is non-standard so I couldn't fit it into the tools. I see that Netbeans 8.0 Beta has some new features that might prove handy here, so I might try again.
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    edited 2014-02-08 06:02
    SRLM wrote: »
    I don't know about that plugin. At least for Code::Blocks and Netbeans you don't need any custom code: just some setup. You can find instructions here. Personally, I use Netbeans for my PropGCC code.

    Currently, the only PropGCC debugger option is the GDB command line. Instructions can be found here (I believe that it's now in the main branch, BTW). I've tried to get it running with Code::Blocks and Netbeans, but the Propeller GDB is non-standard so I couldn't fit it into the tools. I see that Netbeans 8.0 Beta has some new features that might prove handy here, so I might try again.
    Can you say what non-standard features of propgdb were getting in your way? We should probably try to address them.

    Thanks,
    David
  • SRLMSRLM Posts: 5,045
    edited 2014-02-08 17:56
    David Betz wrote: »
    Can you say what non-standard features of propgdb were getting in your way? We should probably try to address them.

    Thanks,
    David

    Hmmm. I suppose I shouldn't make these claims without being able to back them up. I don't remember, but I'll look. IIRC, it was something in that PropGCC requires an extra step (downloading?) that PC GDB doesn't.

    Edit: I was also going for a single keypress solution where the IDE takes care of launching the debugging session. In the current version of Netbeans (7.4) it looks like we can attach a running GDB session, so that may be an option. Unfortunately, I left all my Propellers with my class that I'm teaching so I won't be able to test this for a few days at least.
  • oscar4oscar4 Posts: 9
    edited 2014-02-10 06:24
    What about this debugger? http://sourceforge.net/projects/gear-emu/
    I haven't used it much & not seen it referenced on this forum - anybody got experience of it?
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