Development on OS X

[Michael DiRamio]

Originally Posted by Validius

PowerBook :-/

There's always Virtual PC. It's kind of slow though...

[Validius]

Originally Posted by Michael DiRamio

There's always Virtual PC. It's kind of slow though...

way to slow

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Someone should port GCC to work with PICF18's. That'd be super cool.

*Not it....*

[Chuck_Norris]

Ugh, OS X

Nothing against Apple users, the Macintosh OS, etc. but OS X SUCKS FOR PROGRAMMING! Linux is the best way to go for any operating system, the best compilers, etc. However, for our application, Microsoft Windows is the way to go. Obviously this isnt the first time you've heard "Why are you programming on a mac, you idiot?" but just go out and buy a PC!, its the easiest, safest way to go. through my experiance with OS X, its not that much better than Windows XP (stability wise XP is just as good), and I find vista to be the best match of all. Start saving!
-Chuck

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Chuck_Norris

Nothing against Apple users, the Macintosh OS, etc. but OS X SUCKS FOR PROGRAMMING! Linux is the best way to go for any operating system, the best compilers, etc.

It might be instructive for you to look a little deeper at Mac OS X before dismissing it so strongly. It's built on a BSD Unix foundation, and supports exactly the same compilers, tools, OS calls, etc. as Linux does.

For our purposes, the only real missing piece on a Macintosh is MicroChip's C18 compiler. It's also missing on Linux systems. No clear winner there.

[114Klutz]

I would recommend Darwine, but thats only a viable option for Intel Macs. For your purposes, I think Virtual PC running a stripped down version of Windows 2000 is the only way you can compile.

[sonicbhoc]

I think there was some way to do it in eclipse using the eclipse C compiler... at least that's what my instructor told me.

I'm running Gentoo Linux and PCLinuxOS on my computers and I can't aford - and don't want - Windows on my computer. If mcc18 will run in WINE I'll see about installing it tomorrow.

[AustinSchuh]

I currently use wine under Debian to program my team's robot. I searched around on Chief Delphi a couple years ago, and found instructions put out by John Dong on how to set it up. He provides many useful hints and scripts. He even has a linux downloader that you can use.

Good luck, and I hope you succeed.

[Astronouth7303]

Eclipse will run MCC18, with help of the CDT. If you use a makefile, stock will do. FIRSTclipse provides plugins for managed make. The error parser won't work on non-windows, though, since it doesn't do any path translation.

Running MCC18, though, is slightly more challenging. (Disclaimer: I don't own a mac, so this is gathered.)

He's the scenarios I've found from reading:

• PPC: Good luck. No native/inline emulators seem to be available.
• Mac OS X86: It's BSD Unix. Use wine (or some variant) and follow the Linux instructions
• Bootcamp: Load windows, handle everything normally.

A more pressing problem with Mac may be the lack of RS-232. OS X can handle USB-Serial adaptors, IIRC. Classic Mac might have problems, since Apple used its own spec which is not pin-compatible with RS-232.

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Astronouth7303

If you use a makefile, stock will do.

Where is a sample makefile for a non-managed build? I am getting errors with my current one. The robot will sometimes boot up with a red light for the program state, but will work fine after a reset. I am using Debian and Wine.

[Astronouth7303]

Originally Posted by AustinSchuh

Where is a sample makefile for a non-managed build? I am getting errors with my current one. The robot will sometimes boot up with a red light for the program state, but will work fine after a reset. I am using Debian and Wine.

Someone wrote a makefile generator using python. Search for it.

[Ben Englert]

Yeah, I always thought it was a bit of a copout - IFI, claiming to support technical innovation and a variety of designs etc etc choosing the Microchip controller series, programmable only by a proprietary compiler that's limited to Windows, when there are alternatives like the Atmel ARM ones floating around that can be targeted by gcc on any platform.

Of course, now they get away with it, because Parallels/Boot Camp/WINE works on the x86 Macs.

[neutrino15]

I downloaded the shtylman plugin for eclipse on my mac. It installed fine, and even allows me to create new projects with the mcc18 toolchain.. The odd thing is that no matter what code I write, it returns no errors and no hex file upon build.

make all 
Building file: ../main.c
Invoking: C18 Compiler
wine mcc18 -D_FRC_BOARD -Oi- -Om+ -On+ -Ou+ -Os+ -Ot+ -Ob+ -Od+ -Opa+ -pa=4 -Op+ -Or+ -Oa- -Ow+ -p=18F8722 -ms -w=2 -fo="main.o" "../main.c"
/bin/sh: /bin/wine: Permission denied
make: *** [main.o] Error 126

Yet when I run wine from terminal, it executes flawlessly.

Can someone point me to a linux guide for installing MCC18 under wine, and getting it to work with Eclipse? In a perfect world, another guide that could also show me how to get eclipse to load code and listen to the serial port after load!


Thanks

[Binome]

You could always set up mcc18 on a windows box, and connect via VNC and do things that way.