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Products => Computers => Programming => Topic started by: DrG on February 01, 2021, 06:19:51 pm

Title: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: DrG on February 01, 2021, 06:19:51 pm
I updated MPLAB X IDE 5.30 to 5.40 (hey, I can't update these things every 10 minutes :)) Win 7 64.

For me, this jump includes the end of mpasm support and the start of pic-as (part of XC8 v2.20) - I guess 5.35 was the last mpasm, but that is not the issue. I am not interested in adding to the moaning and groaning, I just want to set things up so that I can accommodate the past and the present/future in a convenient (for me) manner.

Ideally, what I would like is to simply keep 5.30 and 5.40 (and subsequent upgrades) on the same machine. I can certainly do that and am doing that now. The problem is the [user]/MPLABXProjects directory. What I really would like to do is to store all of my mpasm projects (and none of the Harmony or  pic-as projects) in one project directory (for use with 5.30 and mpasm; and the C, Harmony, and any pic-as projects in a second projects directory when using 5.40 and up.

I can get around this by creating another user, and therefore, another [user]/MPLABXProjects, which could be used for old and subsequent mpasm projects.

I could also keep two copies of [user]/MPLABXProjects and rename one or the other depending on whether I want to use 5.30 or 5.40+.

It would be easier if there were a way to specify in the MPASM IDE X versions where to look for the project directory, but I can't find that. It seems to simply use [user]/MPLABXProjects.

Is there a way to specify where to find projects in each MPLAB X IDE version?

EDIT: Ahah! Tools/Options/Embedded/Projects Folder (right up on top, where I ignored it :)
Let me check this out and then I will mark it [solved].

EDIT2: This is not as easy as I thought it might be. Setting a new projects directory does not automatically make them visible in that directory, even though they have been copied into the new directory. I need to work on this a bit. Yes, of course I have backups of the original projects directory :)
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: DrG on February 01, 2021, 09:02:29 pm
After playing around for a while, I'm not sure if their there is an easy way to do this. If anyone has had some success, please let me know.
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: DrG on February 02, 2021, 04:25:13 pm
Still working on this. Now, I would like to keep MPLAB X IDE 5.30 and 5.40 viable using the same [user]/MPLABXProjects directory.

Does anyone know how to suppress this error
Code: [Select]
error: Configuration "default" builds with "MPASMWIN", but the support for this toolchain type is not installed.
Errors have occurred while loading one or more configurations.
If a specific error is not shown above, this may happen when you import a project from another computer.
    + You can add language tools in Tools->Options embedded tab.
    + You can change which language tool to use in the project properties dialog.

when 5.40 starts and hits the older MPASM projects?
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: PlainName on February 03, 2021, 11:43:39 am
So far I've managed to keep away from MPLAB-X (still on the non-X), but... are you saying that you can't create a folder in any arbitrary place and then create a self-contained project in that folder? In other words, any and all project can only exist under the defined projects folder? Or, worse, even that can't be changed from [user]/MPLABXProjects?
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: oPossum on February 03, 2021, 12:03:36 pm
MPLAB-X allows projects to be located anywhere and added to the projects list. What it doesn't do is automatically populate the projects list from a specified folder. You have to tell it what project(s) to add.
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: PlainName on February 03, 2021, 12:32:09 pm
What's the significance of the projects list? I tend to ignore all that stuff and just directly open a project by browsing to it (or picking from the MRU list). Presumably one can still do that without having to add the project to some global list?
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: oPossum on February 03, 2021, 12:38:24 pm
Yes, you can just open a project every time if you want to. It will be added to the project list/pane when you do that. The projects list just eliminates the need to browse to the specific folder that a project is in.
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: PlainName on February 03, 2021, 02:51:35 pm
Phew! Thanks :)
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: DrG on February 03, 2021, 03:33:08 pm
Quote from: oPossum on February 03, 2021, 12:38:24 pm
Yes, you can just open a project every time if you want to. It will be added to the project list/pane when you do that. The projects list just eliminates the need to browse to the specific folder that a project is in.

Yeah...and any project in the project list that is MPASM will get flagged with an error message in 5.40 [because of the conf]. This is where I am heading - older MPASM projects visible in 5.30 project list and not visible (by deletion but not checking the box for deleting the actual files)...and the reverse for 5.40. I have NOT done this yet, but I think that will work - thoughts?
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: nigelwright7557 on February 21, 2021, 06:59:59 pm
I have slowly been converting my asm stuff over to C.

I have written PC C# and C++ programs for many years so it wasnt too difficult.

Its just the PIC specific stuff like register names and config setup I had to learn.
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: DrG on February 22, 2021, 06:42:48 pm
Quote from: nigelwright7557 on February 21, 2021, 06:59:59 pm
I have slowly been converting my asm stuff over to C.

I have written PC C# and C++ programs for many years so it wasnt too difficult.

Its just the PIC specific stuff like register names and config setup I had to learn.

I am trying to settle on keeping both 5.30 and 5.40+ resident with only mpasm projects visible in the 5.30 project list. Seems to work sort of but I usually screw up some makefile or something, but can rebuild without problem...so far.

How did you deal with the loss of support for plib (that was a while ago) or do you only use your own peripheral libraries and code them in C as well?

I never used plib a lot, but when I started experimenting with pic32 (I need to get back to that) I knew it was time to change and went to Harmony peripheral libraries (not Harmony projects). It was grueling but was making some sense, eventually.

Just curious as to how others navigate the waters.
Title: Re: Accomodating the loss of mpasm support in MPLAB X IDE
Post by: nigelwright7557 on February 23, 2021, 12:15:02 am
I use Harmony (various versions) for my PIC32 projects.

I havent used plib at all.

I hate these big companies making big changes like removal of mpasm from newer versions.

Microsoft do the same sometimes with Visual Studio.
I used C++ and winforms only to find it was suddenly removed and I couldnt update my programs.
Later they put it back in but its scary after spending months developing something you cant update it.

With harmony I got caught out with a usb driver.
I updated H2.04 to H2.06 and didnt realise at first but if I left my pc program for more than 5 seconds and went back in the usb was locked out.
I went back to H2.04 and it was fine.