Alternative to CooCox for STM32 development

[dannyf]

" Just wait until they have no commercial competition "

Unless they want to kill themselves: arm is also leading the free gcc-arm effort, killing toolchain lenders on the low end, while killing the same low end vendors hope of moving to the high end with its keil offerings. That has gotten to get some people mad.

Not to mention iar.

[jnz]

" Just wait until they have no commercial competition "

Unless they want to kill themselves: arm is also leading the free gcc-arm effort, killing toolchain lenders on the low end, while killing the same low end vendors hope of moving to the high end with its keil offerings. That has gotten to get some people mad.

Not to mention iar.

It wasn't a bad idea for ARM to buy Keil, the business plan you described does make a lot of sense.

Interesting to me that vendors like Rowley who I found to offer an excellent toolchain, get no love while everyone wants to duplicate effort on top of effort by rolling their own IDEs. Rowley was like $100-300. I mean, I'm not moving from Keil, but if I was, it wouldn't be to some dead project or some open source free-for-all, I just don't have the time for that.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Interesting to me that vendors like Rowley who I found to offer an excellent toolchain, get no love while everyone wants to duplicate effort on top of effort by rolling their own IDEs. Rowley was like $100-300. I mean, I'm not moving from Keil, but if I was, it wouldn't be to some dead project or some open source free-for-all, I just don't have the time for that.

An open source free-for-all as you call it probably isn't a wise choice for someone doing commercial work. It's usually well worth the cost to go with Keil, IAR, or Rowley rather than use one of the free options with sketchy support.

For hobby use, one of the free options, including rolling your own from Eclipse/CDT/GDB, is more viable. Community support via forums is not so bad when you don't have a hard deadline approaching and your boss is breathing down your neck.

[richardman]

Interesting to me that vendors like Rowley who I found to offer an excellent toolchain, get no love while everyone wants to duplicate effort on top of effort by rolling their own IDEs. Rowley was like $100-300. I mean, I'm not moving from Keil, but if I was, it wouldn't be to some dead project or some open source free-for-all, I just don't have the time for that.

Note that the $100-$300 Rowley are the NON-COMMERCIAL use versions, their commercial version is still much less than IAR/Keil though. Still a bit higher than ours, but a good alternative to IAR/Keil also, IMHO.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Interesting to me that vendors like Rowley who I found to offer an excellent toolchain, get no love while everyone wants to duplicate effort on top of effort by rolling their own IDEs. Rowley was like $100-300. I mean, I'm not moving from Keil, but if I was, it wouldn't be to some dead project or some open source free-for-all, I just don't have the time for that.

Note that the $100-$300 Rowley are the NON-COMMERCIAL use versions, their commercial version is still much less than IAR/Keil though. Still a bit higher than ours, but a good alternative to IAR/Keil also, IMHO.

Even $5K for a Keil or IAR license is not a large number when you consider that the burdened cost of an engineer is often $200/hr or more. That $5K license only amounts to 25 hours of engineering time. If you save that much time over the lifetime of the license by taking advantage of product features and/or tech support, then the license is essentially free.

Many managers are penny wise and pound foolish. They fail to see that spending money on superior tools, even if they're expensive, pays off in the end in increased productivity that more than makes up for the cost of the tool.

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

As they say in a former neighborhood I used to live in "CooCox be dead"

So, I am trying to code the STM32F7 in C (I'm an assembly man) and the best thing I found so far to integrate it all together is this:
How to prepare IDE for STM32 in eclipse?
 
He speaks a little softly, but just follow the bouncing ball.

For those who copy and paste, in the External Tools Configuration section, the text is as follows:
-f scripts/interface/stlink-v2.cfg
-f scripts/target/stm32fxx_stlink.cfg
-c "init; reset halt"
-c "flash write_image erase project_name.elf"
-c "reset run; shutdown"

And for those who also like STM32, another thing is to read Carmine Noviello's book Mastering STM32: https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32 where he clearly explains how to install a standalone Eclipse.

I recommend Eclipse Mars.

Eclipse tutorials for different chipsets are out there. Just look.
There's one on TI that's good as well.

The best part is that this is all free.

[jmsigler]

It may have been linked in this thread already, but I used this website http://gnuarmeclipse.github.io/install/ which is maintained by the guy who leads the plugin development. It walks you step by step through the process and was easy enough to follow.

[dannyf]

The best part is that this is all free.

not sure. I have found that the most expensive  things I have bought in tend to be free.

Instead, the best part of anything, particularly a tool that I need to make a living off of, is that it works.

[ez24]

And for those who also like STM32, another thing is to read Carmine Noviello's book Mastering STM32: https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32 where he clearly explains how to install a standalone Eclipse.

How does it work buying a 60% book?  Looks interesting and I like the web site.  thanks

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

How does it work buying a 60% book?  Looks interesting and I like the web site.  thanks

Did you not see that you can download it, so far, as is, FOR FREE?
http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

And... "The LeanPub platform works so that once you buy the full book you receive all the updates for free. LeanPub is a sort of crowdfunding platform for books."

[ebclr]

Here you can check

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/products/development-tools/software-development-tools/stm32-software-development-tools.html?querycriteria=productId=SC2106

 I suggest MDK-ARM-STM32 Free MDK-ARM licenses can be activated for both STM32F0 and STM32L0

[Quarlo Klobrigney]

The original topic was what alternatives were there for high $$ (or insert you method of payment here), for development tools. For the learner or hobbiest that would like to do more than blink a LED because of time or code size limitations, Eclipse is about the only answer to someone not making a living off it. If you are, then pay...

Off the original topic, I purchased the 60% incomplete book, with all of its 587 pages so far.
Looks a treat.

[ez24]

How does it work buying a 60% book?  Looks interesting and I like the web site.  thanks

Did you not see that you can download it, so far, as is, FOR FREE?
http://samples.leanpub.com/mastering-stm32-sample.pdf

And... "The LeanPub platform works so that once you buy the full book you receive all the updates for free. LeanPub is a sort of crowdfunding platform for books."

Yes but the free version is an evaluation copy - the endings of most chapters are missing

[ebclr]

Isn't evaluation

Only works with stm products, no limitation

[ez24]

Isn't evaluation

Only works with stm products, no limitation

I think we are getting things mixed up - I am talking about a book

https://leanpub.com/mastering-stm32

which has a free sample but if you look at the sale of it - it shows that the book is only 60% complete but still for sale.  This is the part I do not get.   Looks like the author did a good job on it and I think I will buy it if I can figure out the 60% of the deal.

[AndyC_772]

Eclipse is about the only answer to someone not making a living off it. If you are, then pay...

If you're not developing commercially, then CrossWorks is US$150. If your code fits into 16k, it's free.