EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: Simon on October 31, 2012, 08:59:28 pm
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I'm just watching the pathetic videos on the microchip website. One is interesting, they produced a picdem educational board that takes 8, 18 & 20 pin pics and there is going to be a visual environment for programing with flow charts. This video was a while ago, and i guess the software is usable on any pic, so what happened ? did it get ditched ?
I know nothing will replace hard writing code, but for applications where timing is not important it would be ideal.
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so what happened to microchips offering ?
Yes ultimately nothing can replace learning proper code, I expect you can only do so much "graphically"
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so what happened to microchips offering ?
http://www.microchipdirect.com/searchparts.aspx?q=flowcode&resperpage=10 (http://www.microchipdirect.com/searchparts.aspx?q=flowcode&resperpage=10)
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so what happened to microchips offering ?
http://www.microchipdirect.com/searchparts.aspx?q=flowcode&resperpage=10 (http://www.microchipdirect.com/searchparts.aspx?q=flowcode&resperpage=10)
Ah, another buyout, so when this board was advertised for $125, 49 or more of that is for the software
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Not sure of how often it is updated, but great cow basic for pics has both graphical and code based programming and is free.
http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/ (http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/)
edit:
Looks like it is updated fairly frequently.
http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/update.html (http://gcbasic.sourceforge.net/update.html)
14/10/2012
Added initial support for KS0108 controlled graphical LCDs (Line, Box, PSet, GLCDPrint and GLCDCLS routines in glcd.h)
Added compilation report for more detailed information on subroutine size and locations
Fixed bug in STR function
Fixed page selection bug for initialisation routines
Fixed program memory allocation bug
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latest news 2010 hm, problem is no one wants to talk about basic, that's why I started learning C, and as for ansi C and universality - yea, yea, no different to basic, things are specific I don't care what people say/
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I use Swordfish Basic (http://www.sfcompiler.co.uk/swordfish/) and find it a powerful, simple way to make decent code quickly. It works with the 18F-series only.
Its format is similar to Visual Basic and uses modules to add needed features (UART or I2C for example). A good feature is that all of the modules are written in the same language, so you're not dependent on the developer to make updates to support new chips or to change functionality if you don't like the way something works.
The Special Edition is limited in the size of code that can be generated, but it's free and powerful enough to handle many applications. The pay version is required for USB and SD-card support but it's well worth the price.
Many applications can be found at Digital-DIY (http://digital-diy.com/)
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Good god man you can't go around admitting to using basic !, the populous will stone you to death :P
I found basic to work fairly well for me (mikroBasic) but plunged into C and "think" i am getting there
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Good point. I should have kept my mouth shut :) but it does work well for me.
I've never used any of the MikoE languages - the reviews always seem to be kind of mixed.
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The interface is pretty good, better than maplab 8, maplabx has somewhat go even with them. It a little simpler and has libraries but you have to take into account that the libraries are a bit shit.
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No doubt flowcodev4 is a powerful little tool when it comes to quick prototyping but ultimately is going to lag in features. I believe they introduced global variables in v5 duhh.. If you're keen to switch to c then look no further than ccs c. I've used mikroC as well and although it has slightly better libraries and examples, is ultimately overshadowed by ccs in performance and flexibility.
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so what happened to microchips offering ?
Microchip was also going to offer the graphical programming software called Realizer. It is developed by Actum Solutions in the Netherlands (www.actum.com (http://www.actum.com)). The deal to resell the Realizer software never came to fruition.
ST offer a version (used to cost about AUD$300 many years ago for the ST6 & ST7 micros). I bought this, then migrated to the Pic micros. It cost about AUD$3600 to support the PIC12 & 14 parts.
ST still offer a fairly cheap version of Realizer which Actum still update. Obviously there are enough seats involved to keep their interest in ST7/STM8 micros.
I love it & use it for about 60% of my projects. When I studied I was taught all about glue logic & this is the way Realizer "draws its flow chart" on the screen. It also has a great Simulator so that you can test your "diagram" before programming the chip.
I would not recommend though that anyone consider starting with it now, unless you can get it really cheap. FlowCode Version 6 can do so much more & of course now Raspberry Pi & Arduino have hit the scene.
Realizer have not kept up with the latest Microchip releases. I have just had a look & the last Realizer release that supported Microchip micros was in December 2011.
Good god man you can't go around admitting to using basic !, the populous will stone you to death :P
I found basic to work fairly well for me (mikroBasic) but plunged into C and "think" i am getting there
I use microEngineering Labs Pic Basic Pro, but it too has not received a substantial update since 2011/12.
Again, it appears that the interest in C, FlowCode & the Raspberry Pi & Arduino have pretty much taken this space these days.
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so what happened to microchips offering ?
Take a look at Microchip's new offering called MPLAB Code Configurator.
"The MPLAB® Code Configurator is a FREE graphical programming environment that generates seamless, easy to understand C code that is inserted into your project. Using an intuitive interface it enables and configures a rich set of peripherals and functions."
http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en_us/devtools/code_configurator/home.html# (http://www.microchip.com/pagehandler/en_us/devtools/code_configurator/home.html#)