Re: [PhillyOnRails] Anybody tried TI's "Code Composer" 2.0?

[GREG NEELEY <greg_w_neely@yahoo.com>]

Thanks for the feedback on "Code Composer."

I was thinking more along the lines of the
way most IDE's work.

Code Composer is on the desktop or laptop, and
produces a compiled image that loads to the 
microcontroller. That's how it works now.

I was thinking about easing the maintenance burden
by producing some Ruby programs that run with, or
within, the Code Composer product which build
"C" source or header files used to produce these
microcontroller load modules.

The source file would then be compiled and linked
from within the Code Composer product to produce the
executable image (load module) which runs on the 
microcontroller.

Most of the programming constructs in "C" (macros,
structs, pointers to structs, functions, etc.) could
be built as "poor mans objects" from a Ruby program.

Of course, this takes away one of the obvious
advantages of Ruby: it forces OOP from the get-go.

The upside would be, however, that the Ruby would be
easier to maintain than the C code.

This is what I would do initially, anyway.

Another approach is to leave the C produced by Code
Composer that will port alone, and build Ruby objects
(everything in Ruby is an object, right?) that would
construct only those device specific code portions
which produce
the microcontroller load module. This could be done
for different microcontroller models, again, to ease
maintainence.  Only those portions of the code which
are microcontroller "model specific" would be
generated
from the Ruby code.  The rest of the "portable" C
could be left as is, and again, folded in with the
Ruby code before compilation and link-editing to
produce the load module.

Evan's comment below is more ambitious than this, of
course.  I don't know anything about Ruby interpreter
construction, but in theory, don't the interpreters
simply "swap" in and out of memory to a hard drive?
The problem I would see, then, is that there isn't
any persistent storage on the USB microcontroller
"stick" at execution time (disconnected from PC).

--- Evan Weaver <evan@cloudbur.st> wrote:

> You might be able to fit a stripped-down Io
> interpreter in that heap :) .
> 
> Joking... sort of.
> 
> Evan
> 
> On 9/3/07, Kostas (Gus) Nasis <kostas@nasis.com>
> wrote:
> > I've used it, but for the TMS320 DSP platform. I
> wouldn't call it
> > Eclipse-like, and it's not exactly pleasant to
> use, but as is the
> > case with most microcontrollers (except maybe
> those that are ARM-
> > based) you don't really have too many options.
> >
> > Will you write a Ruby interpreter for it? :)
> There's a whopping 128
> > bytes of RAM to work with.
> >
> > Kostas
> >
> >
> > On Sep 3, 2007, at 9:56 AM, GREG NEELEY wrote:
> >
> > > September 3, 2007
> > >
> > > Has anybody tried the "Code Composer 2.0" IDE
> > > from Texas Instruments?
> > >
> > > They claim it's "Eclipse like", and they
> > > it has a "limitless C compiler" (where do
> > > they get the people who write this stuff?)
> > >
> > > They're shipping the MSP430 USB Stick
> Development
> > > Tool to me next week, and will let you know if I
> can
> > > do
> > > anything with it w.o the IDE for starters.
> > >
> > > -GreginKC
> > >
> > >
> > >
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Evan Weaver
> Cloudburst, LLC
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