Subject:
Re: [gnupic] PIC under Linux developpement Howto
From:
"Robert J. Lee" ####@####.####
Date:
5 Jul 2005 21:52:21 +0100
Message-Id: <200507052155.44201.kiki@rjlee.dyndns.org>
I really like the idea of making a Wiki dedicated to PIC knowledge. That would
certainly go on my bookmarks!
Such a resource would be useful, not only for newbies but also for anyone who
wanted to know things like subtle differences between different
processors/programmers, objective viewpoints on which processor would be
better for different situations, and little things like that that you won't
get from the Microchip documentation.
The only problem with a Wiki is limiting it to something like tutorials. With
enough people posting, you're bound to get different topics, programming
languages, and various asides being covered. This all adds to the total
information available, but people tend to need more structure when they're
learning. Which hopefully might mean that people will tend to keep the pages
structured.
I also agree with those who say that to program PICs you need to know
assembler. Then again, I've never used a higher-level language for PICs,
(unless you count a whole bunch of macros), so I'm probably not the best
person to judge. But I'd hate to be in the situation where a compiler
introduced a bug into the code and not know enough assembler to track it down
(however likely/unlikely that is).
As far as setting up the basic technology for a Wiki goes, I have a few MB of
web space that I could dedicate to this if people want me to, and I've set up
a Wiki before without too much pain (although I don't know how much time I
could dedicate to moderating it if that became necessary).
— Robert J. Lee
On Monday 04 Jul 2005 16:41, David McNab wrote:
> 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.
