Can I define the device and configuration word in the pbp source file?

[spamme0]

Thanks,
FinelineIDE looks like a terrific program.
Unfortunately, it doesn't work for me.
Can't figure out how to get it to produce the .LST file.
Can't figure out how to use a Picstart+ programmer.
But the killer is that it doesn't like my touchpad mouse.
The mouse vertical scroll feature gets locked on and scrolls
all over the place.
Fineline default horizontal scroll cuts off the first 9 columns.
Can fix it with the horizontal scroll bar, but it pops back to cutting
off 9 after a vertical scroll.
If I actually use the mouse horizontal scroll, all it likes to pop to the
middle so nothing shows.
I can indent a couple of times so the program is visible most of the time,
but it still shifts horizontally against my will. To be fair, this is an
ancient touchpad with a win2k driver running on win7...but it seems to work
on everything else.

Can't use it for general programming, but it might come in handy
debugging those cases where I have nested IF statements with
the endifs in the wrong places.

I bit the bullet and used the DEFINE syntax to put Pictype in the .bas file.
Wrote a program to parse it out, construct a pbpw command line
then post-process the hex file to remove the configuration word for the
bootloader. One click and I got hex exactly like I want it from whatever
source file I use.

Thanks, mike

[mackrackit]

To bad about FineLine. It really is a nice program.

Just curious, what are you using to write your PBP code with and what did you use to write the parser/command line to create the hex?

[spamme0]

I use windows notepad to write picbasic code. My programs are simple, typically
fit on two pages. I do all the heavy lifting with Hotpaw Basic on a Palm.
The pic just interfaces hardware and sends raw data via RS232 or SIR or bluetooth/SPP
to the Palm. It's usually interrupt driven, so I've found simulators pretty much useless.

I used quickbasic to write the parser/control code for PBPW until I ran into a situation
where I absolutely had to use a long filename. After a LONG search, I finally switched
to FREEBasic and the companion fbide. It's very short on debugging help, but it
has a lot of nice string functions. The dialect is annoyingly different from QB,
but documentation is good. Been working out well for writing small "scripts".

I don't recall exactly why I didn't use VisualBasic6, but think it had to do with wanting
a single .exe file I could transport to another machine without a lot of drama.

I'd like to expand my user interfaces from Palm to WinCE. Best free basic-like compiler
I've found is Aristar Dialect. Works, but I'd like more control over the serial
port hardware. Any ideas in that area?

Thanks, mike

[mackrackit]

No, I do not have any ideas other than the serial module in python. But it seems like you are pretty setup with good system so why change?

Brings back some memories... Palm, to bad they went away.

[spamme0]

At least two problems with Palm. The file system, or lack thereof.
Real pita to log more than 4K of data.
And they're going away.
Serial connectors are way too fragile for general use, and they're
going away too. I have way more bluetooth and wifi WinCE PDA's
than Palms.

I'm seriously hampered by my cheapness, I won't pay for software,
and lack of programming skill. The free tools have low capability, they're old
so won't support newer features and
typically won't create an executable file.
I can cobble together a VB6 program because it hides all the details, but I can't handle "C".
My "C" capability peaks out at a very small subset of K&R.
With this newfangled stuff, you have to know how to create an overloaded,
subclassed, instance of a WM_Paint..or is it WM-PaInT or wm_Paint or ...GRRRR!...
Darned Hungarians!!!.... know which include files to include
and make a deal with the devil just
to get "Hello World" to compile. I'm too stoopid for that. Starting with
a working example of "Hello World" in C++, I couldn't even get it changed to
"goodbye cruel world". I know it's somewhere in that mass of includes, defines, resource
files and string tables and on and on and on. Why can't I just type, 'print "hello word"'
and be done with it?
Seems like all the cheap or free stuff is C-like.

Anyway, it's a hobby. I just need to find a FREE basic-like compiler for a WinCe PDA.