Shop OBEX P1 Docs P2 Docs Learn Events
LameStation is the new maintainer of Propeller IDE — Parallax Forums

LameStation is the new maintainer of Propeller IDE

Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
edited 2014-12-02 01:18 in Propeller 1
Hi there,

Propeller IDE's original developer, Steve Denson, has done an awesome job on this editor. I have to say, I was completely thrilled to finally see an open source, cross-platform editor appear for the Propeller, because I run Linux and I've wanted one for years!

However, due to other obligations, Steve no longer has time to maintain the project, so LameStation will be jumping in to take it on!

To start, things have been moved around a bit:
  • The repository has been moved to GitHub
  • Downloads and the WIP user manual can be found here
  • The issue tracker is here*
We're planning to make some changes too:
  • Fixing some key bugs (see tracker)**
  • HTML WebHelp version of the Propeller manual
  • Automation of the build / release process
  • Integrated Spin tutorials
*Please let us know if you have any trouble signing up for the issue tracker.
**We are actively looking for people to help resolve these issues and may be able to arrange compensation for these efforts.

To get involved in Propeller IDE's development, or with any other feedback, send us a message at contact@lamestation.com.

This should be fun. =)
«1

Comments

  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-10-17 21:19
    Brett,

    It's nice to see the move to git.

    Any reason you are not using the github issue tracker?

    Sounds like Parallax could do with PropellerIDE being made usable as a native app on Chrome books and in the Chrome browser. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/157215-Open-Propeller-Project-7-Programming-Propellers-from-a-Chromebook/page4
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-18 00:45
    Heater. wrote: »
    Brett,

    It's nice to see the move to git.

    Any reason you are not using the github issue tracker?

    Sounds like Parallax could do with PropellerIDE being made usable as a native app on Chrome books and in the Chrome browser. http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php/157215-Open-Propeller-Project-7-Programming-Propellers-from-a-Chromebook/page4

    Yes, Git is totally awesome, I love it.

    I have access to a JIRA installation which gives me a lot of power and flexibility and allows me to track all my projects in one place.

    That sounds like an excellent idea. I sent you a private message. Let's talk!
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    edited 2014-10-20 08:56
    Congrats! Looking forward to trying this out in the future.
  • PaulPaul Posts: 263
    edited 2014-10-20 10:49
    I, for one, welcome our new Propeller IDE overlords.

    but seriously... I have to agree that Steve did i great job with the IDE and I'm glad someone stepped up to take on the mantle of responsibility from the overworked Steve.

    I've checked out the tracker you mentioned and it looks like you have been quite busy with the fine tuning. I also managed to find the HTML version of the Propeller Manual. That itself must have taken quite the effort. I was wondering if the HTML could be packaged for export so I can we can run it locally? (My internet and ISP is slowwwww.)

    Good job so far, mate.

    Paul
  • DavidZemonDavidZemon Posts: 2,973
    edited 2014-10-20 11:16
    Paul wrote: »
    I was wondering if the HTML could be packaged for export so I can we can run it locally? (My internet and ISP is slowwwww.)

    If the html is generated by some program, maybe along with HTML we could even get latex, rtf, pdf (recursion anyone?) and others
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-10-20 11:20
    I'm sure it's possible. But why not just view the HTML, in that tool everybody has the browser?
  • william chanwilliam chan Posts: 1,326
    edited 2014-10-21 05:03
    Which is better?

    Propeller IDE or Propller Tool?
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-10-21 09:19
    Which is better?

    Propeller IDE or Propller Tool?

    BST?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-10-21 09:28
    @willian chan,

    Depends. The Propeller Tool is totally useless on Mac, Linux or any non-Windows platform. Yeah I know, you can probably get working with wine or some emulator thing but really. So it's SimpleIDE/PropellerIDE for me. When I'm not just using vim that is.

    @Oldbitcollector,

    Sadly BST is no longer supported. As it is binary only it cannot be moved forward. Eventually "bit rot" will cause it to be unusable everywhere. Or at least it cannot move forward, Prop II support for example. Shame BST served us well for a long time.
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2014-10-21 09:56
    I thank Steve, Dennis and Roy for all of the work they put into it. I can only imagine that the PropellerIDE being opened sourced it will end up better than the Propeller tool.

    I use it on the Raspberry Pi and it works great.
  • RsadeikaRsadeika Posts: 3,837
    edited 2014-10-21 10:34
    I use it on the Raspberry Pi and it works great.
    Did you build a special RPi installation pkg for your RPi?

    What I would like to see is a Propeller IDE C version for the RPi, or a less cumbersome implementation of Spin and C on the Propeller IDE. It seems like I am doing more projects with the RPi being involved, so I definetly would be using Propeller IDE on my RPi unit(s).

    BST was a good choice in its day, but things have moved on, and its time to move on past BST(RIP).

    Ray
  • David BetzDavid Betz Posts: 14,516
    edited 2014-10-21 10:41
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    BST was a good choice in its day, but things have moved on, and its time to move on past BST(RIP).
    One problem with leaving BST behind is that I think it has at least one feature that none of the other tools has. It can do dead code elimination to reduce the memory usage of a program by removing the code for methods that are not being used. Does OpenSpin support this yet?
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2014-10-21 11:24
    Ray,
    What I would like to see is a Propeller IDE C version for the RPi, or a less cumbersome implementation of Spin and C on the Propeller IDE. It seems like I am doing more projects with the RPi being involved, so I definetly would be using Propeller IDE on my RPi unit(s).
    I thought the idea of PropellerIDE was to make a dead simple IDE for programming the Prop in Spin.

    We already have SimpleIDE for developing C/C++ for the Prop that runs on the Pi.

    SimpleIDE also supports Spin and a billion external memory expansions, thus making it "ComplexIDE". Hence the motivation for PropellerIDE.

    Bill Henning (Micronoughts) can probably supply you with a SimpleIDE for the Pi.

    Or I have a version here : https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81267937/SimpleIDE-0-9-46.armv6l.raspberrypi-linux.tar.bz2 which is probably a bit old now.

    Parallax should really take this matter in hand.

    P.S. I have a version of the propeller loader from propgcc that works on the Pi and allows direct Pi to Prop connection over the UART on the Pi GPIO header here: https://github.com/ZiCog/pi-propeller-load
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-10-21 12:31
    There are two features which I'll need before I can move from BST..

    First, that code optimizer is a "god send" when you are working with projects that have you at the wall memory wise.
    Second, the non-standard optimizations introduced in BST are something that I really need.

    No bit rot here.. BST is still serving development on our project well.
    I'd love to move forward, but really need PropellerIDE to support these functions.
  • JonnyMacJonnyMac Posts: 9,105
    edited 2014-10-21 12:35
    No bit rot here.. BST is still serving development on our project well. I'd love to move forward, but really need PropellerIDE to support these functions.

    I believe that has more to do with OpenSpin that with the editor itself, right? I did notice the Brett added BSTC compatibility for PropellerIDE -- at least as a temporary measure -- until OpenSpin has all the features that advanced users like you enjoyed with BST. My requirements are fairly simple, but I enthusiastically support dead code removal.
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2014-10-21 12:40
    JonnyMac wrote: »
    I did notice the Brett added BSTC compatibility for PropellerIDE -- at least as a temporary measure -- until OpenSpin has all the features that advanced users like you enjoyed with BST. .

    Nice! I'll give it another look. I'm pleased to see Brett is moving things forward.
  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,653
    edited 2014-10-21 13:20
    I didn't realize Propeller IDE was different than SimpleIDE... Sounds like it's a "simpler" than simple IDE?
    Don't know if it has it already, but com port autodetection would be nice....
  • JonnyMacJonnyMac Posts: 9,105
    edited 2014-10-21 13:52
    Nice! I'll give it another look. I'm pleased to see Brett is moving things forward.

    Sorry, Jeff, I should have said "added to his requirements list" -- BSTC compatibility is not yet implemented.
  • JonnyMacJonnyMac Posts: 9,105
    edited 2014-10-21 13:53
    Rayman wrote: »
    I didn't realize Propeller IDE was different than SimpleIDE... Sounds like it's a "simpler" than simple IDE?
    Don't know if it has it already, but com port autodetection would be nice....

    Yes, simpler by a mile.
    Auto detect is implemented.
  • ratronicratronic Posts: 1,451
    edited 2014-10-21 14:11
    Rsadeika wrote: »
    Did you build a special RPi installation pkg for your RPi?

    Ray I had trouble getting it installed - but Steve gave me instructions somewhere in his announcement thread of PropellerIDE. I am using PropellerIDE 0.19. I am also using SimpleIDE

    0.9.45 on the Pi with an Activitybot.

    Edit: The instructions are in this thread post#826
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-28 00:33
    Paul wrote: »
    I, for one, welcome our new Propeller IDE overlords.

    but seriously... I have to agree that Steve did i great job with the IDE and I'm glad someone stepped up to take on the mantle of responsibility from the overworked Steve.

    I've checked out the tracker you mentioned and it looks like you have been quite busy with the fine tuning. I also managed to find the HTML version of the Propeller Manual. That itself must have taken quite the effort. I was wondering if the HTML could be packaged for export so I can we can run it locally? (My internet and ISP is slowwwww.)

    Good job so far, mate.

    Paul

    Wooo! Looks like the forum wasn't notifying me about new messages. Haha.

    Yes, absolutely it can be downloaded as HTML. I've included a package for it on the home page. Soon, this will be bundled with PropellerIDE so that you won't have to download it separately.
    https://lamestation.atlassian.net/wiki/display/SPIN/
    If the html is generated by some program, maybe along with HTML we could even get latex, rtf, pdf (recursion anyone?) and others

    Yes, this is definitely possible. I started an effort to support this functionality if you'd like to contribute to it. It uses XSLT stylesheets so it can be ported to any output you like. I have written stylesheets for LaTeX and HTML (I dream of making one for man pages at some point). Check it out:

    http://www.lamestation.com/kyber/

    The difficulty here was just simply getting it to look right, so I ended up focusing more on styling the source document itself for consumption.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-28 00:39
    I should probably put this matter to rest right now.

    We will not be supporting any C/C++ functionality as part of Propeller IDE. Propeller IDE is Spin-only.

    We are committed to making an awesome Spin tool that is easy to use and cross-platform. We want to give the Spin programming environment the love and attention it deserves, and ensure Propeller Spin's viability as a platform into the foreseeable future.

    As Heater indicated, there is SimpleIDE for C/C++ development.
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-28 01:09
    David Betz wrote: »
    One problem with leaving BST behind is that I think it has at least one feature that none of the other tools has. It can do dead code elimination to reduce the memory usage of a program by removing the code for methods that are not being used. Does OpenSpin support this yet?

    OpenSpin does not support this yet, but Parallax is waking up to the limitations of the available compilers and is doing something about it.
  • william chanwilliam chan Posts: 1,326
    edited 2014-10-31 06:14
    Hi Brett,

    I tried to order a LameStation Kit but the site wont allow international purchases.
    How now?
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-31 07:04
    Hi Brett,

    I tried to order a LameStation Kit but the site wont allow international purchases.
    How now?

    Hi William,

    I didn't realize this, but apparently Square doesn't yet allow for payments outside the US, so it looks like I will need to switch to another platform. While I'm setting that up, if you contact me directly at contact@lamestation.com, I can arrange a PayPal transaction for you.

    I should have a new store up and running by the end of next week, if not sooner. I apologize for the inconvenience.
  • fridafrida Posts: 155
    edited 2014-10-31 14:17
    When I compile F9 the little windue will not go away. See pic20.
    When I use F8 it starts up with a fat font, even I have change the font to medium. See pic22. When I hit options and then cancel, the font went right. See pic23.
    pic21 is where I choose font. pic24 is the version, I have downloaded to day.
    I am on UBUNTU 64.
    500 x 388 - 44K
    800 x 597 - 125K
    481 x 225 - 32K
    800 x 628 - 26K
    800 x 628 - 25K
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,392
    edited 2014-10-31 14:23
    Brett Weir wrote: »
    OpenSpin does not support this yet, but Parallax is waking up to the limitations of the available compilers and is doing something about it.

    Waking up?

    Brett, internally we have a different set of requirements for improvements to OpenSpin. We are setting out to do dead code removal with Roy. Please get with Jeff on the other issues so we're on the same page - we don't want to lose compatibility along the way.

    Ken Gracey
  • Ken GraceyKen Gracey Posts: 7,392
    edited 2014-10-31 14:24
    Hi Brett,

    I tried to order a LameStation Kit but the site wont allow international purchases.
    How now?

    I have 12 sets at Parallax. Just place an order with Chantal or Kristina and call it a "non-stock Lamentation" and "see Ken". The inventory should be on my desk, and is about to be brought into our system.

    Ken Gracey

    EDIT: or buy from Brett, your choice.
  • jmgjmg Posts: 15,173
    edited 2014-10-31 22:57
    I didn't realize Propeller IDE was different than SimpleIDE... Sounds like it's a "simpler" than simple IDE?
    JonnyMac wrote: »
    Yes, simpler by a mile.

    Hmm, seems a rather fundamental problem here in the choice of names & labels.
    Shouldn't such a oxymoron / conflict be fixed before this is widely released ?
  • Brett WeirBrett Weir Posts: 288
    edited 2014-10-31 23:40
    frida wrote: »
    When I compile F9 the little windue will not go away. See pic20.
    When I use F8 it starts up with a fat font, even I have change the font to medium. See pic22. When I hit options and then cancel, the font went right. See pic23.
    pic21 is where I choose font. pic24 is the version, I have downloaded to day.
    I am on UBUNTU 64.

    Would you provide the version of Ubuntu you are using?
Sign In or Register to comment.