IMPORTANT regarding the new C Compiler

[dlavery]

Folks -

Microchip has been very generous in their offer to make the new, fully licensed, commercial version of their compiler available to all FIRST teams. They are making it available to us even before it is available through commercial sale. It is incumbent upon us to honor and respect what they have done, and abide by the rules of the license.

The license they have given to FIRST does not allow any team to download the compiler and redistribute it to other teams. No matter how well intentioned, anyone doing so is violating the terms of the license. You are showing that we cannot be trusted as a community, and running the very real risk of forcing Microchip pull the entire deal off the table. Please remove any links to unauthorized distributions of the compiler out of all messages and threads on these boards, and shut down unauthorized distributions of the compiler immediately.

I recognize that it may occasionally be difficult to get through to the Microchip web site to download the new compiler, due to the traffic that they are getting. However, it is important that everyone understand that there are two - AND ONLY TWO - legal ways to get the compiler. You can be patient and try again to download from their web site during the two week period that they will host that option. Or you can wait until after that and request a copy on CD through IFI.

Please folks, let's try and show that we are deserving of what we have been given here, and let's not screw this up. If we cannot show that we can abide by the rules, then we will never get another offer like this again. Conversely, if we can demonstrate that we are good stewards of the generosity from Microchip, then perhaps other vendors may follow suit in the future.

-dave