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Unread 06-01-2007, 15:37
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Re: Eclipse Development

Quote:
Originally Posted by gnirts View Post
Questions:
  1. Without an error parser, what exactly happens when there is a compiler/linker error? How does a developer receive feedback?
  2. Can one use IFI_Loader with this project? Other than non-W32 compatibility, why would you not want to use IFI_Loader?
  3. How easy will it be to finish the C18 syntax highlighting support? What skills are needed/can I help?
  4. How easy is it to go back and forth with a given code base from Eclipse to MPLAB?
  5. And is this project truly ready to go as far as compiling C18 code goes? Eg. what steps are needed, from downloading the Sourceforge project, to start downloading code to the PIC?
  6. What is compiler toolchain support?
  7. Does MPLAB support library/binary parsing? Or is this just does help with code completion?
Thanks in advance, and let me know how I can help/where you need it the most, even if it's just writing documentation. I want to see this working really soon.
Answers:
  1. The output of the compiler does show up in the console tab, so you can see errors, however, apparently, in the SourceForge version, they are not parsed. This is fixed in the updated version of my original plug-in but I haven't merged that into the SF project yet, because of naming convention issues with the plug-in.
  2. One can use IFI_Loader with this project? Mainly it's to provide support for non W-32 toolchains; however, it's also nice to be able to just right click on a file and select something like "Load to RC..."
  3. How easy will it be to finish the C18 syntax highlighting support? What skills are needed/can I help?
    This is the hard part, in the current version of the CDT there isn't an easy way to add new keywords. However, I believe this will change in CDT 4. Since they plan on adding Visual C support, the editors are undergoing major changes.
    The only problems right now are that certain keywords specific to the C18 dialect of C (e.g., rom, ram, near, far, overlay), are not highlighted, but everything else is highlighted and works properly.
  4. How easy is it to go back and forth with a given code base from Eclipse to MPLAB?
    This is very easy, you just have to have keep the MPLAB project files when you import your code into eclipse. Then you can use MPLAB to edit the code whenever you want to use MPSIM or anything like that. However, certain features of Eclipse like local history (in which Eclipse has it's sort of own internal revision control system), won't work as well, since Eclipse doesn't know what you have changed.
  5. And is this project truly ready to go as far as compiling C18 code goes? Yes, if you want to see what a version looks like (since there isn't an update site on sourceforge yet) you can download eclipse and the CDT, and then install the plug-ins from the http://team254.bcp.org/update_site/ update site. The other issues mentioned are still there, but I believe it is a much better alternative to MPLAB already.
  6. What is compiler toolchain support?
    Basically, allowing you to set options in the Eclipse GUI for the compiler.
    Eclipse then automatically generates makefiles for the compiler toolchain (i.e., MCC18 and MPLINK, and maybe later MPASM), and then compiles the code.
  7. Does MPLAB support library/binary parsing? Or is this just does help with code completion?
    To the first question, I don't believe so. To the second question, I think it does, but not as much as you might think, since it can already get a lot of information from the header files.
  8. In terms of other problems, such as the lack of Win32 GNU Make, you can either use MSYS (not MinGW) or Cygwin, but they are slightly larger downloads.