microCode ver MPLAB

[Andre_Pretorius]

Any comments on witch one is the best

[mister_e]

Depending of the job and what you expect of an IDE.

MPLAB
Pro

1. a kind of sim/debugger (software.. not real-time, not hardware)
2. a sort of logic analyser
3. project manager
4. code folding (expand/collapse)
5. multiple language toolsuite support
6. Free

con:

1. serial comm terminal
2. full code explorer(include, variable etc,etc), limited to label only
3. toolsuite helpfile
4. no support for most third party device programmer
5. a bit tedious to use, bloat

MicroCode
PRO:

1. full code explorer
2. easy to use, light
3. built-in serial communicator/terminal
4. easy to use/implement ICD (paid version)
5. bootloader (paid version)
6. support for any third party device programmer
7. context helpfile

CON:

• single toolsuite support
• no code folding
• no project manager

Depending your definition of better/worst. Both do the job.

[Angus Anderson]

Hi Andre-

This is a PBP Forum, right? Then you should be looking to use a PBP enhanced IDE, and IMHO there is no question that Microcode MCS is the answer. For PBP, it is simple, quick, elegant. Also, be aware that MCS can use the MPLAB assembler (for 18F) as well as their own assembler (16F). The Microchip MPLAB IDE is optimised for C programmers, and as Steve says, is full of bloat. You can integrate PBP into MPLAB, but I find the operation clumsy.

Hope that this helped

regards

Angus Anderson

[f5bqp]

Apparently what I understand is that if you want to use the In-Circuit-Debug (ICD) function from MicroCode Studio Plus you need a PIC which has a built in USART and this hw USART is used by the ICD. So you application running into the PIC under debug cannot use the USART for something else within your own code.
May be I'm wrong but this is what I understood. If this is true, it could be a serious for some application requiring the use of the USART.

pf

[Andre_Pretorius]

Fair enough, I will have a serious look at microcode, one other question will my microchip mplab ICD2 work with microcode?

[f5bqp]

ICD2 works with MPLAB 8.01 you can download and integrate PICBASIC PRO
It doesn't work with Microcode Studio Plus because as far as I know it doesn't exits an executable (.EXE) file to drive the ICD2 debugger/programmer. It's fully embedded into the MPLAB development suite.
This is too bad!

pf