On Thu, 1 Aug 2002, Katinka Mills wrote: > On Thu, 1 Aug 2002 01:28, you wrote: > > Hi all, > > > > If you are really that desparate to program in C for free, perhaps you > > should look at some of the more mature devices such as the 8051 which > > already have open source compilers. > > http://www.gnupic.org/ Which I hardly update - if anyone has recommendations for other references that should go here please let me know and I'll add them. > > Has lots of great resources for the cost concious ppl, yes it is mainly *nix > based, but with programs like CGYwin (IIRC have not used winblows for *nix > emulation since my servers moved from NT4 to FreeBSD (way back in '96) > > Atmel is slightly lacking on the *nix support, but is catching up :o) (I have > just released version 0.10 of the AVR ASM highlighter for KATE in KDE 3.0.X, > and this will be released with the next KDE release (KDE 3.1.0 soon) > > Alot of people are working in this area, but all of us (weather pic, AVR, 8051 > ...) are banging our heads ATM as there is a massive user base, which is > refusing to donate their spare time in the spirit of GNU / GPL etc and help > out, helping is as simple as writing documentation, finding bugs maybe even a > bit of development work if you are a C junkie ;o) we all want free, we all > want good tools, some of us want to be free from M$ crap, but if ppl do not > help, then nothing happens. How long will it be till people like Scott burn > out, IT IS HAPPENING, look at the number of unfinished projects, then ask > why, it is usually not that it was a bad idea or no one is interested, but > more like no one helped, no one bothered to let the author know his / her > work is apreciated ..... I could rant all day, but you get my drift, IF YOU > WANT FREE TOOLS, SUPPORT THEM, ASK WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP !!! While I don't think you implied this, I (Scott) don't currently have any unfinished projects, just several on-going ones with no clearly defined deliverables! (I only have three projects: gpsim, gpasm, and SDCC). Kat is mostly right. Like BAJ, I won't even address the religious aspects of Open Source tools. Doing so is just a waste of time. I can tell you though that my personal motivation for Open Source development resides in the challenge of solving a complex problem. I view Open Source development exactly the same way I view basic Research. There's information and there are ideas. Information is the collection of ideas over time. I use information "out there" to expand my ideas and in turn reciprocate by contributing my ideas back to the "information pool". Anyone can use this simple model to guage how they wish to contribute. So if I may, let me re-phase Kat's last sentence: If you want Free tools, look around until you find them. If you find them then use them. If you discover a way to make them better then either enhance them yourself or make suggestions to the authors. If you can't find the Free tool you want, then find something similar. Ask the authors if they'd be willing to morph the tool for your situation. If that doesn't work, then spend some money and buy a commercial tool if it's available. Unlike most Open Source advocates, I don't believe there's anything philosophically wrong in purchasing honest commercially developed code. Again, using the Research metaphor, one's ideas can be enhanced with closed source too. Scott -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The list server can filter out subtopics (like ads or off topics) for you. See http://www.piclist.com/#topics