Hi Olin, 2006/1/27, Olin Lathrop : > Unforatunately it turns out that HiTech is not compatible with the MPLAB > tools. They have their own assembler and linker, and it seems there is no > way for the compiler to produce either MPASM source or object files > compatible with MPLINK. This means the large amount of existing assembler > we were planning on using is inaccessible. I am a stranger when talking about Hi-Tech compiler, but the last time I read through their documentation, I think I read something about PICC uses "compiled stack". Well I might be wrong here but I really get the felling that it would prevent any chance to mix-languages programming. I think I was at the same position as you're now: to select one from Microchip C18 and Hi-Tech PICC. The custom linker tool of the latter made me picked my choice - C18 then stand better for me. > So the question is, is C18 up to the job? A bunch of years ago C18 was > definitely behind, and I even had Microchip people tell me the HiTech > compiler was better. I can't tell on this one because I am not familiar with Hi-tech compiler. But I guess all those comparison were made with a pure C project, I mean not a mix-language project. Probably Hi-Tech is doing 'brightly' because of their custom linker tool. In some cases like you want a mix-language project, I think the custom linker tool might be disadvantageous - perhaps nearly make it impossible to reuse your existing asm code. I might be wrong on the Hi-tech opinion. I would be happily be corrected if I am wrong. But I would say this: I am doing mix-language project comfortably with C18! > This lingering feeling is why the customer got HiTech > in the first place, not knowing about the incompatibilities with > MPASM/MPLINK. It's been a bunch of years, and Microchip could well have > made C18 better by now. Yes. I agree. In my humble opinion, C18 is far better if your goals are a mix-language project, re-use existing asm code etc. I recalled that I asked a hi-tech fun about the possibility to do mix-language with Hi-Tech. The answer I got was: you'll never need asm with Hi-Tech. Best regards, -- WH Tan -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist