Which PicBasic Software To Use?

[CDRIVE]

Unless I'm mistaken MicroChip's PicBasic software isn't free and seems to be quite expensive. I did find MikroElektronika though, and have spent most of my morning reading their online book, which seems to be exceptionally written.

Any opinions from members using this software?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[BobK]

I would suggest switching to C.

Bob

 

[GonzoEngineer]

I have had a lot of fun using the Basic Stamp series. I use them all the time to build simple test circuits for testing PC Board functions. They are cheap, and versatile.

 

[CDRIVE]

I would suggest switching to C.

Bob

Bob, I've been programming in QB and then VB6 since 1998. The language is nearly second nature to me. Learning C at this late date is unappealing to me. I would rather familiarize myself with ASM directly than do that.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[p.erasmus]

CDRIVE
THE MikroElektronika BASIC compiler are good stuff ,you will not go wrong
I use their C compilers(now ANSI Compliant) in may) products I am very happy with mE
also you being use to VB you will have no problems using it

 

[BobK]

Bob, I've been programming in QB and then VB6 since 1998. The language is nearly second nature to me. Learning C at this late date is unappealing to me. I would rather familiarize myself with ASM directly than do that.

Thanks,
Chris

That would be a good idea too. There are some time critical things that are better done in ASM on PICs.

I do most of my programming in ASM for 8-bit PICS, have only used C for 16-bit ones.

Bob

 

[CDRIVE]

CDRIVE
THE MikroElektronika BASIC compiler are good stuff ,you will not go wrong
I use their C compilers(now ANSI Compliant) in may) products I am very happy with mE
also you being use to VB you will have no problems using it

Yes, I was very impressed with the online documentation I've read. I also spent some time reading posts in their forums, which also appears quite thorough.

That would be a good idea too. There are some time critical things that are better done in ASM on PICs.

I do most of my programming in ASM for 8-bit PICS, have only used C for 16-bit ones.

Bob

I'll admit that my primary purpose for wanting a Basic compiler is to see the ASM instructions it produces. So, it will be primarily an ASM teaching aid for me. Heck, I only discovered (4 days ago) that all PIC data sheets provide the complete ASM instruction set for each chip. It was about the same time that I learned that ASM is a hardware specific language. That was a revelation to me!

The reason I'm wanting this is because my Spice simulator (Tina) provides a PIC Editor/Compiler in the form of a flowchart. I feel like a grade school student when using it though! On the upside it does have a Flowchart/ASM Code option to view the ASM that the flowchart generated. It's in the form of a Macro though, which (I think) produces far more ASM code than when entering the ASM code directly. On the other hand Tina will let me program directly in ASM or HEX and also edit LST files.

At this time I have absolutely no PIC projects planned. I'm interested in them because I want to participate more in this section of the forum. Up until now I've been locked into Picaxe threads exclusively.

Bob, I want you to know that I admire 'C' programmers because no matter how many times I consider learning it I find the syntax and the structure totally foreign. Actually, damn near alien. I think enduring a root canal (without anesthesia) would be more fun!

Chris

 

[BobK]

My day job is working on a C/C++ compiler, so it doesn't look so unnatural to me! C, that is, I think C++ is pretty much evil, and by far prefer Java for object oriented programming. Our compiler team allows only limited use of C++, because we know better.

Bob

 

[CDRIVE]

Since retirement my day job is to wake up, drink coffee while reading email, news and forum posts. After that I get on my bike and cycle >20 miles. It matters not where, only that I do it. After reading your last reply I've come to the conclusion that we need a singular programming language.

Myself and thousands of other VB6 programmer's will never forgive MS for their VB6-VBNET bait and switch. I've thought many times of investing time in PowerBasic which closely follows the VB6 platform. I will never risk my time left on this earth to another MS language. After all, the NET guys may also experience over a decade of learning only to have them drop NET for some other platform.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[(*steve*)]

My day job is working on a C/C++ compiler

Working on (as oposed to working with). Interesting.

I think C++ is pretty much evil

The sad fact is that so many people have been exposed to it "first" and have little concept of how it can be done better.

Our compiler team allows only limited use of C++, because we know better.

Hahahaha, much of our recent optimization of a product involved winding the code back from the use of newer C++ libraries and constructs to older C style ones. A 90% reduction in elapsed time tells you something).

I never cease to be amazed how the authors of C++ and it's associated libraries have continued the fine C tradition of obfuscation. They are making great headway into all aspects of the language.

Getting back onto topic... While I think that the use of easier languages (or better languages -- I don't think BASIC is better) is a fine thing, the fact remains that most of the libraries will be written in C for the majority audience. You therefore need to

1) Not need library code
2) Be satisfied with old library code
3) Rewrite C library code

...And the last one requires you know C anyway. So just give in to the dark side (unless you can live with (1) or (2)).

 

[richardb]

Hi, first post here, but here goes,

I would definitely recommend swordfish. It's a thoroughly modern powerful language you can do pretty much anything that you could do in c. The libs are all open to view and edit if required . It supports interrupts events, USB and loads of other peripherals.
there is a free version but that is limited to 256byts of ram.
the aliasing of ram/pins is really nice
The only down side is that it only works with pic18's so that rules out any small pin count pics.

I have used pic basic pro and its very old school, and really i wouldn't recommend it.

 

[CDRIVE]

CDRIVE
THE MikroElektronika BASIC compiler are good stuff ,you will not go wrong
I use their C compilers(now ANSI Compliant) in may) products I am very happy with mE
also you being use to VB you will have no problems using it

Yes, the online description has a look and feel of my VB6 IDE. Unfortunately I downloaded it to my Programs/x86 folder but it's throwing errors. I uninstalled and reinstalled once but same crap. I'll try another zip download next. Maybe the download got corrupted.

Chris

 

[richardb]

It shouldn't be a zip file, it should be an exe. I would download it to either your download folder or desktop. then run it. it's a normal installer and windows would probably not like the installer run from the program folder.

 

[CDRIVE]

It shouldn't be a zip file, it should be an exe. I would download it to either your download folder or desktop. then run it. it's a normal installer and windows would probably not like the installer run from the program folder.

It downloaded as a zip to my download folder and unzipped it there. The setup exe was run from there. I'm going to download it again and put the setup exe on a flash drive so I can try an install on my old XP machine. This machine is W7. Do you know if the program is 32 or 64 bits?


Thanks,
Chris

 

[richardb]

I normally use the full version at work but I did try downloading the lite version on my home pc after you said you had a problem.

this is the main site

http://www.sfcompiler.co.uk/swordfish/

this is the download link which is a .exe

http://www.sfcompiler.co.uk/swordfish/download/index.html

the forum is also very useful if you have any problems

http://sfcompiler.co.uk/phpBB3/


I'd just like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with this company but I have used the compiler for 5 or so years and I've always had good support.

 

[richardb]

ps it worked fine on my windows 7 64bit computer

 

[CDRIVE]

I normally use the full version at work but I did try downloading the lite version on my home pc after you said you had a problem.

Well, this is quite embarrassing but I'm going to chalk this up to imbibing to too much Christmas cheer. Forgive me but I thought I was responding to p.erasrmus's post below. It was MikroBasic Pro that I downloaded. I have not downloaded swordfish but I will look it over.

Thanks,
Chris

CDRIVE
THE MikroElektronika BASIC compiler are good stuff ,you will not go wrong
I use their C compilers(now ANSI Compliant) in may) products I am very happy with mE
also you being use to VB you will have no problems using it

 

[CDRIVE]

ps it worked fine on my windows 7 64bit computer

Richard, I downloaded it with no errors. It downloaded fast and installed even faster. Damn near less than 6 seconds. I love the clean, uncluttered IDE! I sure would like to see this app cover more than 18Fxxx chips though. It really limits its versatility. The other thing I'd like to see is a block comment option like VB has.

DUNKA!

Chris

 

[richardb]

oops my fault I didn't notice the quote was in response to the other poster.

I agree about the block comment it still annoys me. but you can use curly brackets or */ blocks

I also agree wrt small devices(less than 18 pins) but even then mostly low pin count devices are low on ram/rom and probably aren't ideal for a compiler anyway.

As for the IDE. I like it, the code browser on the left is really good.
For example if you type in

Include "shift.bas"

The shift module will appear immediately in the code browser showing the includes, subs and constants/vars.
if you click on the sub the module will open to allow you to brows the code if you then scroll to the top this particular module has some assembly embedded inline.

The compiler also directly supports usb and graphical lcd's which i've used many times.


Rich

 

[p.erasmus]

Cris

The mE compiler runs on both 32 and 64 bits
I never had installation problems since 8 years using the compilers

If you unzipped it and run the setup.exe it should install automatically ,can you tell me a bit more what is happening with you on your machine.

Regards