gnupic: alpha testers wanted
Subject:
alpha testers wanted
From:
David McNab ####@####.####
Date:
26 Aug 2005 02:26:55 +0100
Message-Id: <430E6FDA.4060004@rebirthing.co.nz>
Hi Folks,
I'm seeking people interested in playing with a new PIC18Fxxx compiler,
and possibly even using it in their projects.
The compiler features:
- high-level language programming
- multitasking (co-operative)
- object-oriented programming (optional)
- exception handling
- dynamic memory management
- effortlessly easy integration with assembler
- extensibility to the very core
The compiler in question comes from my earlier PIC18Forth toolchain.
In recap, PIC18Forth compiles Forth source code to a bytecode
token-threaded VM runtime environment. On the positive side, this
implememtation offers great flexibility and extremely compact code, but
at a heavy performance cost.
So I've forked Pic18Forth into two versions:
- 'Van' - original version - slow, but able to carry
large amounts of code in a PIC18F
- 'Coupe' - new version - subroutine-threaded compilation, which gives
near-native speed but loses the code density of the 'wagon', while
keeping the flexibility
It's the 'coupe' version for which I'm seeking testers at this time.
I'm looking to have the manuals, tutorial, example progs, release
tarball etc done over the weekend.
For testers, I'm looking for people who:
- like Forth, or are curious/flexible enough to learn a bit of it
- are looking to try out a new high-level language compiler for
PIC18Fxxx devices
- have at least a crude reading knowledge of PIC18Fxxx assembler
- use gputils and gpsim
- are willing to give clear feedback and feature suggestions
and desirably:
- are working on actual PIC18Fxxx-based projects
- might be willing to get involved in future development and
documentation
- might be willing and able to contribute device drivers in the
future
Please let me know on- or off-list if you're interested.
--
Cheers
David
