Programming on a Mac

[Loki1989]

Is it possible to do and what do i need to do it for robotics

[Jon Jack]

I don't think that there is any Mac native software for programming FIRST robots. You could run VirtualPC to emulate a Windows PC and run all the MPLab stuff that way. If you have a MacBook or a MacBook Pro you could run BootCamp and install Windows and then run MPLab without any emulation. Take your pick, but as far as I know there are no Mac versions of MPLab.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Loki1989

Is it possible to do and what do i need to do it for robotics

You may want to look into how well developed the Darwine project is. That will allow you to run Windows programs without the WinOS.

http://darwine.opendarwin.org/

[petek]

Has anyone out there in CD-Macland tried running MPLab on WinXP on a MacBook yet? Or with a virtual machine under OS X, like Parallels?

Just wondering if there are any issues with USB-serial converter drivers or other hardwareish things.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

I'm not too familiar with Mac stuff, but I know someone got FRC programming to work with Eclipse.

Eclipse works on Mac.

There's a MacOS native solution!

[Kyle Fenton]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

I'm not too familiar with Mac stuff, but I know someone got FRC programming to work with Eclipse.

Eclipse works on Mac.

There's a MacOS native solution!

Not exactly. Even though you can write C code using an editor like eclipse, the PIC compiler is still Windows only. You can set up the compiler in windows to work with eclipse, but without a Mac OS X compiler, there is no way to program your RC.

[Mr. Steve]

Originally Posted by petek

Just wondering if there are any issues with USB-serial converter drivers or other hardwareish things.

I haven't tried it, but I asked the gentlemen in the Apple store who said that one of the reasons Boot Camp was designed the way it was was because they had to make sure any windows specific hardware with less-common drivers would still work.

In a nutshell, "If it works in windows, it will work in bootcamp" was his response.

[JohnC]

I have a Core2Duo Macbook Pro.

I have Parallels with WinXP with service pack 2.

MPLab and friends work wonderfully, and compiling with mcc18 is successful.

However, the RadioShack USB to Serial adapter that I just installed drivers for isn't working. The documentation says that when I plug in the USB end, Windows should create another device in my "Ports (COM & LPT)" section in device manager. That doesn't happen in Parallels, though it does happen on a regular desktop PC.

So that has been my experience. Anybody have ideas? We were so close...

[Robby]

I have experience with vmware, none at all with parallels. In vmware there is a dialog to configure what hardware to emulate for the virtual machine and there is the ability to give the vm access to a real serial port. I would imagine that there is something similar for parallels. I tested it on a linux host with windows guest and it worked without problems with the radioshack usb to serial adapter.

[karlcswanson]

Originally Posted by JohnC

I have a Core2Duo Macbook Pro.

I have Parallels with WinXP with service pack 2.

MPLab and friends work wonderfully, and compiling with mcc18 is successful.

However, the RadioShack USB to Serial adapter that I just installed drivers for isn't working. The documentation says that when I plug in the USB end, Windows should create another device in my "Ports (COM & LPT)" section in device manager. That doesn't happen in Parallels, though it does happen on a regular desktop PC.

So that has been my experience. Anybody have ideas? We were so close...

Did you install drivers for the USB adapter on the mac, or on Windows XP?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

You need to sync devices in Parallels to the VM. More specifically, put your VM in "windowed" mode, click the USB symbol in the bottom right corner of Parallels, and click the device "On"

[Kyle Fenton]

Here is an article about sharing a serial port using Parallels

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...70111135928615

[dk5sm5luigi]

I was successfully able to run easyC Pro in Parallels and download the code to the robot. This was about a month and half ago before Parallels fully supported USB 2.0 so the download was a little slow. I haven't tried it since with the new support but I can only assume it works faster now.

[Kingofl337]

easyC PRO works in both Parallels and Bootcamped XP. We are also offering free copies to the team or person who can make it install and run in DarWine.

[unknownmosquito]

Since the IDE doesn't matter the real question is this: is there a compiler and/or IFI loader that works with Macs (natively)?
Furthermore, has anyone had any luck with QEMU (called Q for Mac) and MPLab?