development_guide_for_great_cow_basic_preferences_editor

Development Guide for Great Cow BASIC Preferences Editor

This section deals with the Great Cow BASIC Preferences Editor (Pref Editor).   The Prefs Editor is the software enables the user to select programmers, select the options when compiling, select the assembler and other settings.   The Prefs Editor uses an ini to read and store the compiler settings.   The INI structure is explained the first section, then, the Prefs Editor in detail.

ABOUT THE INI FILES

You can provide the compiler an INI file with a number of settings and programmers.  

The following section provide details of the specifics within an example INI file.   The comments are NOT part of an INI file.  

The settings are in the INI section called [gcbasic].  

    [gcbasic]
    'The current order of the programmers as shown in Prefs Editor
    programmer = tinybootloader, lgt8fx8p, arduinouno, pickitpluscmd0, nsprog

    'Show the progress counters when compiling.  This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch. There is no support in Prefs Editor to change this parameter.
    showprogresscounters = n

    'Show verbose when compiling.  This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch
    verbose = n

    'Show source code in the generated ASM or .S files. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch
    preserve = a

    'Treat warning as errors. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch.  There is no support in Prefs Editor to change this parameter.
    warningsaserrors = n

    'Pause after compilation. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch.  There is no support in Prefs Editor to change this parameter.
    pauseaftercompile = n

    'Flash the chip only. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch. There is no support in Prefs Editor to change this parameter.
    flashonly = n

    'Selected assembler. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch.
    assembler = PIC-AS

    'Add comments to hex to show source compiler. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch.
    hexappendgcbmessage = n

    'Mute banners when compiling. This can be changed in the INI or by a command line switch. There is no support in Prefs Editor to change this parameter.
    mutebanners = n

    'Show the extended verbose messages when compiling. his can only be changed in the INI. There is no support in Prefs Editor or a command line switch to change this parameter.
    evbs = n

The section shows an example [tool] assembler section.  

    [tool=pic-as]
    'An assember
    type = assembler
    'Location of the assember using a parameter substitution.
    command = %picaslocation%\pic-as.exe
    'Parameters
    params = -mcpu=%ChipModel%  "%Fn_NoExt%.S" -msummary=-mem,+psect,-class,-hex,-file,-sha1,-sha256,-xml,-xmlfull  -Wl -mcallgraph=std -mno-download-hex -o"%Fn_NoExt%.hex"  -Wl,-Map="%Fn_NoExt%.map" -Wa,-a

    [tool=mpasm]
    'An assember
    type = assembler
    'Location of the assember using a parameter substitution.
    command = %mpasmlocation%\mpasmx.exe
    'Paramters
    params = /c- /o- /q+ /l+ /x- /w1 "%FileName%"

The section shows an example [patch] section.

This section shows and explicit set of patches applied to PIC-AS assembler.

    [patch=asm2picas]
    desc = PICAS correction entries.  Format is STRICT as follows:  Must have quotes and the equal sign as the delimeter. PartName +COLON+"BadConfig"="GoodConfig"    Where BadConfig is from .s file and GoodConfig is from .cfgmap file
    16f88x:"intoscio = "="FOSC=INTRC_NOCLKOUT"
    16f8x:"intrc = IO"="FOSC=INTOSCIO"
    12f67x:"intrc = OSC_NOCLKOUT"="FOSC=INTRCIO"

The section shows an example [programmer] section.  

    [tool = pk4_pic_ipecmd_program_release_from_reset]
    'Description
    desc = MPLAB-IPE PK4 CLI for PIC 5v0
    'A programmer
    type = programmer
    'Command line using a parameter substitution.
    command = %mplabxipedirectory%\ipecmd.exe
    'Parameters using a parameter substitution.
    params = -TPPK4 -P%chipmodel%  -F"%filename%" -M  -E -OL -W5
    'Worting direcroty using a parameter substitution.
    workingdir = %mplabxipedirectory%
    'Useif constraints - this shows none
    useif =
    'Mandated programming config constraints - this shows none
    progconfig =

ABOUT THE PREFS EDITOR

This is a utility for editing GCBASIC ini files.   It is derived from the Great Cow Graphical BASIC utilities, and requires some files from Great Cow Graphical BASIC to compile.  

The software is developed using Sharp Develop v.3.2.1 ( not Visual Studio ).  

COMPILING

Ensure that the "Programmer Editor" folder is in the same folder as a "Great Cow Graphical BASIC" folder.   The "Great Cow Graphical BASIC" folder must contain the following files from GCGB: - Preferences.vb - PreferencesWindow.vb - ProgrammerEditor.vb - Translator.vb - ProgrammerEditor.resources

Once these files are in place, it should be possible to compile the Programmer Editor using SharpDevelop 3.2 (or similar).

USING PREFS EDITOR

If run without any parameters, this program will create an ini file in whatever directory it is located in.   If it is given the name of an ini file as a command line parameter, it will use that file.  

As well as the ini file it is told to load, this program will also read any files that are included from that file..   This makes it possible to keep the settings file in the Application Data folder if GCBASIC is installed in the Program Files directory..   To put the settings file into the Application Data folder, create a small ini file containing the following 3 lines and place it in the same directory as this program:

    include %appdata%\gcgb.ini
    [gcgb]
    useappdata = true

The include line tells the program (and GCBASIC) to read from the Application Data folder.   The useappdata=true line in the [gcgb] section will cause this program to write any output to a file in Application Data called gcgb.ini.   The hard coding of GCGB is required this program is based on GCGB.   It will result in programmer definitions being shared between GCGB and any other environment using this editor, which may be a positive side effect.

BUILDING THE PROGRAMMER EDITOR EXECUTABLE USING SHARP DEVELOP

To build Prefs Editor from the source files.   The list shows the installation of the Sharp Develop IDE.

Complete the following:

        1. Download and install Sharp Develop from  https://sourceforge.net/projects/sharpdevelop/files/SharpDevelop%203.x/3.2/[SourceForge]
        2. Download the Prefs Editor source using SVN into a source folder.  This is the folder ..\utils\Programmer Editor
        4. Run Sharp Develop (installed at step #1).  Load project  "Programmer Editor.sln"  from source source folder.
        5. Hit <f8> to compile.