Re: Re: Hello, I must be going . . .
| Newsgroups | gmane.comp.hardware.texas-instruments.msp430.discuss |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
I think the OP was grumbling about his perceived state of MSP430 support on the Mac. For non-Windows users MSP430 (and ARM) support has been somewhat unsatisfactory until lately. It's still a bit of a challenge to locate all the resources available. The web gets out of date quickly. For the 430 this is made more difficult by some gcc for 430 efforts which have been abandoned and TI's decision to put more resources into support for gcc for the MSP430. I'm confused myself about what to use on Linux. But at the moment I'm playing w/ ARM based boards, so I've not been concerned. A Usenet style monthly FAQ posting about MSP430 toolchain support would certainly be helpful to non-Windows users. As was pointed out previously, Energia provides an Arduino style programming environment on Unix (at least the Linux and Mac flavors). There's also the traditional compile-link-load command line interface using mspgcc, mspdebug and gdb. In addition, there is Matthias Koch's excellent Mecrisp which provides a standalone forth environment for both MSP430 and ARM devices. A couple of years ago the toolset was sufficiently poor that I gave up for a while. I wanted to play, but not enough to use Windows. I did give up on Solaris though. I got the 430 gcc toolchain working. But for ARM that was a bridge too far, so I built a dedicated CentOS box for MCU work. As to the OP's question about why the instructor chose the MSP430 there are many possible reasons. Exposure to YAM (yet another MCU) is certainly a good reason. It might also be personal experience (the instructor may not have time to learn a processor just to teach a course) or resources provided by TI. Just in the limited stuff I've done I've encountered the "I can't use that device because it doesn't have xxx." I suggest that the OP ask the instructor and report back. Since he reported being familiar w/ the Arduino, it would be interesting to hear how he thinks Energia stacks up in comparison. The limited foray I made w/ Energia and the G2553 & F5529 LaunchPads made a good impression on me once I fixed a few minor issues. But I don't have any Arduino experience. Back in the '90's we had the workstation wars. Now we have the dev board wars. May the battles continue. ;-) Have Fun! Reg ------------------------------------ Posted by: Reginald Beardsley <[email protected]> ------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from the msp430 group, send an email to: [email protected]