borland?

[neilcooper]

does anybody know of a first loader that works with borland compilers?

[TMHStitans]

no, i dont

[Alan Anderson]

Does Borland even make a PIC compiler? I've never heard of one.

[Darwin695]

Sadly, Innovation First decided not to put an x86 based computer system in the robot controller this year, that means you are going to have to use a compiler made for a PIC Processor (specefically the pic18f... serries with the 8x8 hardware multiply...) the easiest compiler to use in this case is the supplied C18 compiler.

If you do find another compiler for PIC's that you like, i would love to know about it... the C18 is a little on the expensive side when you arent using it for robotics...


-Cheers

[Greg Ross]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

Does Borland even make a PIC compiler? I've never heard of one.

I think what he want is an IFIloader replacement, and not a PIC compiler.

No I don't know of any. Are you up to writing one?

[MikeDubreuil]

It's important to understand whats happenens when compile and download software.

1. You select Build All in MPLAB. MPLAB the Integrated Develeopment Enviroment (IDE) send commands to the PIC C18 compiler to compile and then link your code. This creates a hex file. The hex file is a file that is machine code for the PIC processor inside the IFI Robot Controller. Machine code is similar to an .exe file on your computer.

2. You open up the IFI Loader, select your file, and hit download. The Master Processor haults everything else on your robot and enters a boot loader mode. A boot loader allows you to download the program into the Robot Controller's memory. Once complete, your program executes.

[AIBob]

Originally Posted by gwross

I think what he want is an IFIloader replacement, and not a PIC compiler.

True, but he said specifically for a borland compiler, and borland compiler is not the right assembly code (not the text, the actual bits used by the computer), and it would not work without a compiler specifically for the PIC, unless it was converted from x86 to PIC, which would be another interesting program. So the PIC would read the bits and think that it is running something completely different from the compiler, and programmer think that they are writing.