SimpleIDE Mac RC1 Problems

Mike Green · 2015-01-08 22:24

I was trying to compile a modified version of DongleBasic (from the ObEx) using SimpleIDE for the Mac (RC1). When I try to create a new .spin project, I get "Blank Simple Project not found". In addition, the save dialog box gives a Save As name with a .spin extension. Shouldn't that be .side?

I 'faked' a .side by using an old .side file for another source file and modifying the source file name directly (with TextWrangler). It opens and allows me to edit, but, when I try to compile, the compiler says that the compilation failed ... If I dismiss that dialog, SimpleIDE hangs up and has to be Force Quit.

Mike Green · 2015-01-09 09:18

More information ...
The additions to DongleBasic had a source error ... an undefined symbol. Now it compiles, but won't load (to RAM or EEPROM). The compile status shows that SimpleIDE runs openspin from the application bundle (?) and openspin reports a zero return code (?), but SimpleIDE doesn't go on to the loader.

openspin DongleBasic.spin
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//opt/parallax/bin/openspin error ... (0)

With the source error corrected, the Propeller Tool (under Windows XP) compiles and loads the program just fine.

dgately · 2015-01-09 14:46

Mike,

I find that the best process for compiling an existing Spin project in SimpleIDE is:

1. Close any existing projects within SimpleIDE
2. Set "Project View" (just seems to provide all the needed menus for this and I like project view :-)
3. Use either the OpenFile icon or the File menu "Open" command, to display an Open dialog
4. Select (as an example) the "DongleBasic.spin" file from its directory
5. SimpleIDE will display a new TAB named appropriately, "DongleBasic.spin"
6. At that point, the Project Options window may still show Compiler Type as "C" or "C++" (don't worry about this, ignore it for now!)
7. Click on the "Set Project to Current Tab" gear icon or select the Project menu's "Set Project" item
8. The Project Manager column will now show DongleBasic.spin and all its dependent .spin files. And, the Project Options will display the Compiler Type as "SPIN"
9. Now, you 'should' have a Spin project that you can save with Save Project icon or the Project menu "Save" item. This will create your .side project file

At this point, you "should" be able to compile and then load the binary to your propeller board... I had success (see below) without need to mod any of the project sources.

But, if you are not having success at this point, it may be an incorrect setting in the Properties dialog. If you have a habit as I do to run earlier versions of SimpleIDE your properties for compiler location and loader directory may get corrupted. In my case, the properties were set to the legacy /opt/parallax/ locations and then in another case, to the content of an early development version of the app. Unfortunately, Mac OS X doesn't think my admin user credentials are enough to allow changing those properties via the Properties dialog (hmm).

Solution: I had to remove all previously stored property files from my system, so the Properties dialog would allow updates.

1. Quit SimpleIDE (need to do this to make sure the properties files get removed completely, else they would get re-saved by SimpleIDE in their current state).
2. In the Terminal app:

"cd /~/Library/Preferences" <== change directory to your user Preferences folder
"rm com.parallax.inc.SimpleIDE.plist" <== remove the offending legacy-bound preferences .plist file

3. Re-launch SimpleIDE,open the Properties dialog (BTW: Mac users call these "Preferences")
4. Reset the GCC Compiler, Spin Compiler and Loader Folder entries (The dialog's Browse buttons will now help you to find and select the proper files/folders)
5. Retry compile & load steps. I this does not work, copy the log output using the Help menu's "Build Error Rescue" command for posting here.

Some future version of SimpleIDE should probably reset the properties if it finds older variants or corrupted plists. These steps are really not user-friendly and this needs a much simpler solution.

For comparison, here's what Build Error Rescue contained on completion of the compile/load on my system:

Project Directory: /Users/altergator/Downloads/DongleBasic_2011-07-27/
&#8232;
openspin -I /Users/altergator/ParallaxSpinCode/SpinObjects/ DongleBasic.spin
Propeller Spin/PASM Compiler 'OpenSpin' (c)2012-2013 Parallax Inc. DBA Parallax Semiconductor.
Compiled on Oct 23 2013
Compiling...
DongleBasic.spin
|-BB_definitions.spin
|-BB_i2cSpiInit.spin
  |-BB_definitions.spin
|-BB_massStorage.spin
  |-BB_definitions.spin
  |-BB_i2cSpiLdr.spin
    |-BB_definitions.spin
|-BB_FullDuplexSerial.spin
  |-BB_definitions.spin
Done.
Program size is 14760 bytes
propeller-load -S1 -Dreset=dtr -r DongleBasic.binary -p /dev/cu.usbserial-A1013PDNPropeller Version 1 on /dev/cu.usbserial-A1013PDN
Loading DongleBasic.binary to hub memory
14760 bytes sent
&#8232;
Verifying RAM ... 
OK

I hope this helps!

dgately

Mike Green · 2015-01-09 20:53

Thanks for the suggestions. They haven't helped though. I deleted SimpleIDE along with its .plist files in Library/Preferences. I also deleted the SimpleIDE directory in Documents then reinstalled it all. I made sure Project View was enabled which did help me create a new .side file. I still get this from Build Error Rescue:

Project Directory: /Users/mgreen/Desktop/RGB LED Resources/DongleBasic/

openspin DongleBasic.spin
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//opt/parallax/bin/openspin error ... (0)

I'm sure the above path to openspin is not valid, but I'm not sure how to fix it. In the Properties window, I tried using Browse to find openspin, but the open file dialog wouldn't allow me to open the application bundle.

dgately · 2015-01-09 23:15

Mike Green wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions. They haven't helped though. I deleted SimpleIDE along with its .plist files in Library/Preferences. I also deleted the SimpleIDE directory in Documents then reinstalled it all. I made sure Project View was enabled which did help me create a new .side file. I still get this from Build Error Rescue:

Project Directory: /Users/mgreen/Desktop/RGB LED Resources/DongleBasic/

openspin DongleBasic.spin
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//opt/parallax/bin/openspin error ... (0)

I'm sure the above path to openspin is not valid, but I'm not sure how to fix it. In the Properties window, I tried using Browse to find openspin, but the open file dialog wouldn't allow me to open the application bundle.

In the properties dialog change:

/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//opt/parallax/bin/openspin

to

/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin

Though, SimpleIDE may log that it uses:

/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/openspin

Note: Older versions of SimpleIDE may have placed the .plist in /Library/Preferences/ (not the user's ~/Library directory)... And, older versions used a slightly different file name for the plist. Look for: "com.parallax.SimpleIDE" (i.e. no "inc"). Look for any files in those directories that include "parallax" (PropellerIDE also places a .plist in those directories as well)... Getting rid of those should force SimpleIDE to use the more correct directory.

dgately

Mike Green · 2015-01-10 09:34

Again, thanks for the effort. I deleted the .plist files from /Library/Preferences. There were no Parallax .plist files in ~/Library/Preferences. I entered the path you indicated into the properties dialog and verified that openspin was located there. I also added a path to my Spin library. I essentially got the same error:

Project Directory: /Users/mgreen/Desktop/RGB LED Resources/DongleBasic/

openspin -I /Applications/MonoApps/PropLib/ DongleBasic.spin
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin error ... (0)

Mike Green · 2015-01-10 12:40

Thanks jazzed. I copied and pasted the path you gave into the Spin compiler path box, closed SimpleIDE, reopened it and tried compiling. Didn't work:

Project Directory: /Users/mgreen/Desktop/RGB LED Resources/DongleBasic/

openspin -I /Applications/MonoApps/PropLib/ DongleBasic.spin
/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin//Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin error ... (0)

SimpleIDE and openspin used to work on this Mac a couple of releases ago. FWIW, I'm using the latest Yosemite beta update which seems to work otherwise.

dgately · 2015-01-10 12:52

jazzed wrote: »

That path to openspin will never work.

It should be: /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin

Jazzed,

True, but...

Mike is seeing an issue that I have recently witnessed as well. Although the Properties dialog displays the Spin Compiler field as: "/Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin", internally SimpleIDE is appending another path as you can see from the output log.

The only way I could clear this up was to remove the .plist file where properties are stored. In Mike's case, that does not seem to help.

Mike,

I think this will work...

Open the current file plist file in XCode, making sure you use the following path, with your own user name. In the Terminal:

open /Users/yourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.parallaxinc.SimpleIDE.plist

You should see something like this:

If the SimpleIDE_SpinCompiler field is incorrect, you can edit it with XCode's plist editor.

dgately

jazzed · 2015-01-10 12:57

Fascinating ....

If I copy paste this path, it fails: /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/propeller-gcc/bin/openspin

If I copy paste this path, it works: /Applications/SimpleIDE.app/Contents/MacOS/../propeller-gcc/bin/openspin

Mike Green · 2015-01-10 13:25

jazzed, If I copy / paste the second path you gave, it works. Hmmm.

Thanks all.

tj4shee · 2015-01-13 10:18

Hi, and HELP !!!!!! :-) I ran through the posts here... not sure what I am doing wrong...... when I do an Open... and traverse to a directory with my .spin file, the spin file is grayed out and it will not let me select it....

I have Closed all/any other projects in trying this....

edit: I created my own .side file with the .spin files defined in it... and am able to open it.... question... for spin projects... do I need to create the project with SimpleIDE ? i.e... SimpleIDE is always looking for a .side file ?

dgately · 2015-01-13 12:24

tj4shee,

When you say "Open" do you mean open a file or a project? From post #3, I mention setting the project view before opening any file, else there is really only project open options and not .spin file open options (hover your cursor over the icons and you'll get a hint as to their use):

2. Set "Project View" (just seems to provide all the needed menus for this and I like project view :-)
3. Use either the OpenFile icon or the File menu "Open" command, to display an Open dialog

Without being in Project View mode .spin files are dimmed and not accessible. Try the commands 1..9 from post #3 and see if that helps.

dgately

SimpleIDE Mac RC1 Problems

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