This should be fun

[Unregistered - RomanBlack]

Firstly, I apologise for posting on a Geo forum as a guest and for refreshing an old thread. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with the following questions.

I have been searching the net for some (hopefully) unbiased and honest opinions of the EasyPic4. I have been working with PICs (mplab, mpasm) assembler only for about 10 years and in C (dos, win) for about 20 years. I have never used a PIC C compiler.

The EasyPic4 (and BigPic4) looks good for some of the development work I need to do in the near future but I have some concerns;

* total compatibility with win98se (no I won't upgrade windows!)
* ability to edit mikroC functions (do they supply source code?)
* ability to add snippets of assembler - or include/compile my assembler functions

From what Boattow says above the last 2 don't look real good? However it is quite important to me to be able to add assembler as some of the high perf requirements I have need to be hand tuned.

Ideally I would like to code some of the timing sensitive interrupts etc code in assembler for fastest performance but also include general C functions for decimal math, LCD display, external comms etc etc.
-Roman

[Max]

Firstly, I apologise for posting on a Geo forum as a guest and for refreshing an old thread. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me with the following questions.

I have been searching the net for some (hopefully) unbiased and honest opinions of the EasyPic4. I have been working with PICs (mplab, mpasm) assembler only for about 10 years and in C (dos, win) for about 20 years. I have never used a PIC C compiler.

The EasyPic4 (and BigPic4) looks good for some of the development work I need to do in the near future but I have some concerns;

* total compatibility with win98se (no I won't upgrade windows!)
* ability to edit mikroC functions (do they supply source code?)
* ability to add snippets of assembler - or include/compile my assembler functions

From what Boattow says above the last 2 don't look real good? However it is quite important to me to be able to add assembler as some of the high perf requirements I have need to be hand tuned.

Ideally I would like to code some of the timing sensitive interrupts etc code in assembler for fastest performance but also include general C functions for decimal math, LCD display, external comms etc etc.
-Roman

Hi,
yes there are many development boards and experimental sets for pic (expecially the 16x serie) and easypic4 seems a good choice for who is novice to pic and related issues...but you already know pics and assembly so you have already a big advantage over any newby.
About pic c and ANSI (about) c compilers there are 2 or 3 around that are really good...all the rest just is unseful in real applications or produce bad and redoundand code that simply would fill 2K memory quite easy...and add to e.g. asm code a variable 40-60% more overhead...means wasted program memory.

Apart the notorious microchip PIC C compiler... there are these interesting:
CCS : very good one but not freeware so must be a licensed copy
HI-TECH PICC compiler: also good one
CC5X : my preferite choice for small pic c code programs...it's simple, easy to use and has a freeware version too (program code limited to 1K! so you can't do much complex thing with freeware and need the commercial to fully use your more advanced devices)

I prefer CC5X cause I find it intuitive and always use the freeware...if program is not too big and complex (though I have the full version too).
You can find freeware at www.bknd.com/cc5x/ there you can find documentation too...just try it, some examples included ...and you realize that you can save time and efforts without losing ASM control on critical program parts !

But if I have to choose between them I think I'll take the CCS cause there are some useful librarys/routines e.g. comm/output on displays...etc etc that simplify programmer's life. It's a really good product and often generated code is better optimized respect e.g. HI-TECH or also CC5X.

With any of these you can always add ASM code as inline , that's pretty cool (and ANSI compliant!) and leave you free of using optimized asm code for time critical applications.

Best regards,
Max

PS: there is also the mikroC...as you maybe already know...that's good too.

[Sean_Goddard]

Try here >>http://www.picbasic.co.uk/forum/index.php

OR just try http://www.picbasic.org

I bought the IDE and Dev'. board and quite frankly IT ROCKS!!

I'm developing all sorts of stuff with it, and so far, EVERY application has worked first time the debugging is THAT GOOD!!

It's compatible with Epic programmers, MPLab, and a whole raft of other stuff. I bought the board with the graphic and character LCD. It's also got IR I/O and I2c EEPROM on board too!!

You can knock up a simple micro based detector in around 1/2 hour of programming. I hooked the dev board str8 into a Tesoro Golden Sabre and had VERY basic TID up and running in around 15 minutes. You can intergate ASM code too .

ENJOY.

[Unreg - Roman Black]

Thank you for your replies!