SparkFun Forums

[folksoter]

Hi to all.
Please can you tell me what is the best compiler for an ARM7-TDMI, I am also confused to choice a good programmer/debuger (ULINK 2 or J_LINK or CrossConnect).
I am looking for the easier and powerful compiler, and looking for a nice IDE, If you have the oportunity of choice one of these whithout matter of price (Funded by a company), which one do you buy? and why?

Thanks

[leon_heller]

Why not download the demos and try them for yourself?

Leon

[folksoter]

Why not download the demos and try them for yourself?

Leon

Yes I will try with, but I would like to know the opinions of experts

[leon_heller]

FWIW, I'm very happy with the Rowley software and CrossConnect.

Leon

[andy4us]

If you are happy with vendor lock in, I would look at where you think you might be in 2 years, and go with what will be the best investment in time, since you want to go with a vendor who will have a toolkit for your needs in the future. Also look at any third party libraries you think you might need, say a tcp/ip stack what vendors they support. Then, also think about who you might be getting your board from, and which compiler vendors they support. Once you figure all that out, it normally drops down to one maybe two.

Andy

[gdisirio]

I would try a free toolchain first, yagarto as example, it works very well for me.

[JD]

Rowley hands down. Their price is reasonable especially for a personal license if that’s all you need. The IDE is intuitive and relieves you from writing make files, linker scripts….and supports all the popular j-tag debuggers. Rowley also supplies a wide range of board and cpu support packages. I recently had some trouble trying to compile example code written by Atmel and Rowley tech support actually ported the code and gave me an example project with info on how they did it.
Regards,
JD

[folksoter]

Rowley hands down. Their price is reasonable especially for a personal license if that’s all you need. The IDE is intuitive and relieves you from writing make files, linker scripts….and supports all the popular j-tag debuggers. Rowley also supplies a wide range of board and cpu support packages. I recently had some trouble trying to compile example code written by Atmel and Rowley tech support actually ported the code and gave me an example project with info on how they did it.
Regards,
JD

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it has a lot of bugs because is GNU. Greetings

[leon_heller]

What are the bugs in gcc? I haven't noticed any.

Leon

[bertrik]

I can't follow the "it has a lot of bugs because is GNU" reasoning at all, maybe bugs are more apparent in open-source software because the bug reporting and fixing process is generally public.

I did run into something that could be a bug in gcc: when using the irq attribute in combination with high optimisation levels very strange things happen (crashes etc.), while the code works fine with a hand-built interrupt prologue/epilogue.

[leon_heller]

Where I once worked the programmers gave up on the very expensive C compiler they were supposed to use because it had so many bugs and used gcc instead. It got the job done without any problems.

Leon

[JD]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I think it has a lot of bugs because is GNU. Greetings

There may be bugs in gcc but usually it’s my code
FYI at my job the other day I was loading a Siemens TP177 touch panel and noticed they used gcc for ARM!! If gcc’s good enough for the biggest automation vendor in the world its good enough for me to blink some lights.
Best regards,
JD

[motopic]

Gnu. Yagarto and Gnu Arm.

Gcc is VERY reliable, I have used it crossplatform for arms and ppcs with no issues.
I haven't looked but I bet Rowley does not support Futurlec boards, which are 1/2 the price of Olimex. Granted I have not yet had time to test them thoroughly, but initial serial port tests went well.

The other post is correct, you need to match (or select which piece is the driving force) your compiler, libs, and boards. The last thing you want to do is have to wait on a vendor to support your board.

[leon_heller]

I haven't had any problems using CrossWorks with an Embedded Artists LPC2148 Quickstart and proto board for quite a large and complex application.

Leon

[Azoore]

Keil here. Awesome tools in general. Plus there's support if you need it.