is there anyway program in the new Pic C language on a Mac running OS 10.3??? Will running VirtualPC be the only way? I just don’t want to use the 6yr old piece of junk that has no battery that i have in our robotics lab
YEAH! Power to the Mac users. I believe that you need a serial port to transfer info, but I havn’t gotten a good look at the controller this year, we have had the controller hogged by our programmers… 
VPC w/a USB to serial port adapter is the only way to run C18 under OSX. 
You can buy one of these adapters from must any place that sells computer stuff.
ok next question, i know you can go ahead and write code in a note pad like program, but would i be able to use “X Code” apples software development software to write the new C language.
And is the Language “C”, “C++”, or “C#” i’m confused on what sintax it is.
ok, it’s writtin in “C”, did a little more stumbling acrossed the interweb and got that cleared up.
I’m stilll not sure if X-code will compile “C”. I mean Unix is written in “C”, OSX is Unix with a pretty GUI. Anyone know if x-code will compile “C”???
Code written for the PIC will compile in your OSX box, because unless you do something really tricky, C18 is ANSI-compliant (standard syntax).
However, if you simply use your normal compiler, rather than the C18 compiler, you will not get a usable hex file for the PIC. You must use a compiler meant for use with the PIC because your mac and the PIC have vastly different archetectures. I would go with the VPC, if I were you.
You can still use the X-Code development environment, if you just want a pretty IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to make writing easier. You just can’t compile with this either.
I feel some of your pain, being a Linux user myself, and have found that the only way for me to do it is to use a program called Wine (Win emulator) to run MPLab…
I am not an expert by any means, by I know that x-code only compiles in gcc. This is one of the biggest complaints against x-code, and another reason people still buy the expensive codewarrior.
X-code is specifically designed for just writing programs in Panther. It was never meant to compile programs for embedded processors. Now that doesn’t mean that it can’t, somebody one day could make an add-on compiler for x-code or any other program.
It really sucks that mac users finally got the ability to be able to program in PBasic, only just to loose that ability by Innovation FIRST switching to a different language and compiler.
However I do understand that PBasic was very limited, and many FIRST teams wanted a more advance language to be able to program more.
Well i’m not sure i understarnd ur question. If you are asking if you can write code in somethign other than C18 anf then use C18 then the answer is absolutely! If you are asking if you can compile code for the pic using somethign other than c18 then the answer is no!
Being a Macintosh user, and employed under the name Macintosh, I will throw in a suggestion. Go to Apple’s downloading section, and look through the development tools given, they are either freeware or shareware/demo versions of the software that you guys may be able to use for programming your bot this year. I’ll give you the link: Apple Development Tools for OS X. I hope this helps. Also about an adaptor for using serial, Keyspan offers one, and I know it has been used in previous years and works pretty well.
Ivey
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/development_tools/gnudevelopmentenvironment.html
GNU Development Environment:
A complete suite of GNU C, C++, Fortran, and Java Cross Compilers, and the GDB CPU Simulator and Debugger for embedded microprocessor applications development. Targets development for ARM7, ARM9, and XScale applications
I don’t know if this would help or not, i’m thinking not.
Hey, It turns out the IFI Linux PICloader I wrote for Linux works with my friends Mac OS X ibook with a few tweaks dealing with termios.h. I’m working on a port, but I don’t have a mac. The only problem is figuring out a way to run MC18 on Mac Os X by using an emulator of some sort, any ideas? Anyone want to look into Bochs x86 compiler or wine, if there’s support for mac.
Thanks,
Ryan Waliany