Thanks Mark and Peter. I do not understand Peter's post right now. But I know a bit about make already since I've installed various programs before in Linux and Cygwin. I think I can learn both methods. I just borrowed a book on Make. :) The problem with my Linux exploration is that I never seriously used Linux before and I saw no advantages of Linux before after Windows 98SE (quite stable ??) and later Windows XP (very stable ??). This time, Windows XP keeps crashing my AMD 64 desktop and Ubuntu runs very smoothly there (also on a Dell 600M except the Modem I did not use). I think it is time for me to look at Linux more seriously. Hopefully this time I can do better. The bad news is that I just fixed my Windows XP problem yesterday after two hours of debugging. -----Original Message----- From: Mark Rages [mailto:markrages@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2005 11:46 PM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [EE] MCU and electronics development on Linux On 5/17/05, Peter wrote: > > On Tue, 17 May 2005, Chen Xiao Fan wrote: > > I do know I need to learn Make in order to work in Linux. > > 'Learning make' is not necessary. (gnu) Make has so many sane defults > built in that it's really easy to use. Tiny example: given foo.c bar.c > baz.c a.h b.h as 5 c files in a directory, and a makefile that contains > only the three lines: > > OBJS = foo.o bar.o baz.o > HDRS = a.h b.h > all: app > > app: $(OBJS) $(HDRS) That's not easy to use. That's 100% pure MAGIC! Such an example is useless to Xiaofan, because it relies on arcane knowledge of GNU Make. I love GNU Make more than any IDE, but to learn it, start with the simple stuff: result: prerequisites [tab]command to make result from prerequisites (gmail doesn't let me type a tab!) The simplest example: main.hex: main.s gpasm main.s Simple Makefiles with a few rules like this are all you need for PIC projects. You can glance through the Make manual to see all the advanced features. Then if you need them, you'll know where to find them. Regards, Mark markrages@gmail -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist