gnupic: Re: [gnupic] PIC under Linux developpement Howto
Subject:
Re: [gnupic] PIC under Linux developpement Howto
From:
David McNab ####@####.####
Date:
4 Jul 2005 16:41:31 +0100
Message-Id: <42C958A1.8050406@rebirthing.co.nz>
Philippe BEAU wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> i would like to write an howto about the developpement with Pic series
> under Linux. Do you think it's a good idea ? Is anyone can confirmed me
> that this type of document don't already exist ?
Such a document is sorely needed. It would have saved me much heartache
if good newbie doco had existed when I got started with PICs.
Some ideas to consider:
1. designing the documents as a set of 'trails', where one can click on
links according to their situation:
- what kind of PIC (I'd suggest supporting just 16F and 18F for
now)
- what kind of programmer hardware
- choices of programmer software
- choice of languages
- toolchains appropriate for chosen language
2. walk the reader through each step, eg:
- selecting a PIC chip
- procuring the programmer hardware
- choosing the programmer software, downloading and
installing it
- building a mimimal test circuit with one or more LEDs
- choosing a programming language - assembler, C, Forth,
Python or one of the obscure ones
- sourcing, downloading, (if necessary, compiling) and
installing the toolchain(s) - gputils, sdcc, picforth etc,
possibly with instructions for the major distros such as
debian, gentoo, ubuntu, redhat etc
- writing a 'hello, world' LED-blinker program in chosen
language
- compiling the program successfully to a .hex file
- burning the program into the PIC
- verifying the programmed image
- plugging the PIC into the test circuit and verifying
that it works
and for PICs with self-programming capability:
- building a MAX232 or equivalent TTL<->RS232 level converter
circuit
- writing a simple program to test/verify that PIC serial I/O
is working, via GTKterm or similar
- choosing a bootloader
- compiling the bootloader to a .hex, and burning it into the
PIC
- downloading the earlier test program to the PIC using this
bootloader, verifying all is ok
and also:
- link-farm pages with sources of extra info, eg PICLIST for
contributed library routines
The idea is that the reader can work through each step in sequence,
verify their successful completion of that step, then move on to the
next step. After the final step, they will end up empowered to take
their PIC development wherever they choose from that point on.
Thinking about it, it might be a good idea to make it a wiki, so people
can contribute. Perhaps the wiki could be templated with
language-specific links at the top, so when reading any given page, they
can switch to a version of that exact same page in another language -
also, wherever translations are missing, polylingual folks with a few
minutes to spare can contribute a translation.
Good on you, Philippe, for your willingness to offer such a substantial
boost to the linux-using PIC community. We look forward to seeing how it
shapes up.
--
Cheers
David
