Re: want an sdcc howto?

If there was a reliable C compiler for PIC that I can make work, and will
continue to work for months/years to come then I will use it.  The problem
in the past for me is that I have considered writing in assembler easier
than installing a broken compiler and fixing it.  Debugging the circuit
and PIC code is often hard enough without having to worry about a suspect
compiler.

Yes, I would find the HOWTO a usefull document, and help improve my
confidence in the compiler.

Julian

On Fri, 15 Jul 2005, David McNab wrote:

> Hi,
>
> My preference for high-level langages puts me at odds with much of this
> list's membership, but there are those who feel the same as I do.
>
> The problem with high level languages on PIC micros has been the lack of
> a usable, free/opensource implementation.
>
> sdcc has suffered a bad rap because it's very newbie-unfriendly to set
> up and get going. Also, its binary packaging has been botched, at least
> on Debian.
>
> But with a bit of doco, this problem can go away, to the point where
> sdcc's accessibility is on a par with that of the commercial compilers.
>
> I'm willing to write an 'sdcc on PIC Howto', which takes the user step
> by easy step through:
>
>   - downloading the source tarball
>   - configuring the build
>   - building the core toolchain and extras
>   - installing the toolchain, libs, headers and support files
>   - writing a 'hello, world' LED blinker program in C
>   - turning that into a valid and working .hex binary (including
>     a fix for the broken crt0 module)
>   - setting up and using usart-based stdio (so 'printf()' works)
>   - practicalities of C hacking on PIC
>
> Question is - is any interested in actually seeing/using such a
> document? I'd rather get some votes of support before launching in and
> expending several hours on something that might not be used.
>
> I'd really like to see more interest in sdcc on this list, because it's
> the only viable free/opensource high-level language compiler that spans
> both 16F and 18F, and deserves a place as the 'reference' high level
> language for PIC.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> --
> Cheers
> David
>
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