In SX Microcontrollers, SX/B Compiler and SX-Key Tool, PJMonty wrote:

Scott,

With regards to Eclipse versus a custom IDE, perhaps the single biggest factor involved is that Chip Gracey originally wrote the IDE before the Java language was even invented.  As a result, the SX-Key IDE was up, running, and programming thousands of chips years before Eclipse was even a glimmer in someone's eye.  To leverage Eclipse now would once again put us back in "re-write from scratch" mode.

Further, I have no idea what would be involved in trying to get hardware debugging support working under Eclipse.  Right now, the IDE is custom designed to show the user all the registers and memory of the chip during debugging, as well as setting breakpoints, etc, etc.  Trying to create the same level of support in Eclipse would require... what?  I have no idea.  Have you spent any time working with the Eclipse code?  Do you have any suggestions as to the level of work required?

Of course, there are also the little things that users take for granted until they're gone.  On my machines, the Sx-Key IDE launches in about 1 or 2 seconds.  I have never used Eclipse, but I doubt it launches in anywhere near that amount of time.  I know this sounds trivial, but when a product goes from a near instant launch to a 10 or 20 second launch, folks get upset.  Remember a couple of version ago when Adobe Acrobat used to launch really quick?  Then Adobe came out with a "de-provement" which took waaay longer to launch.  Suddenly, people started posting fixes where you deleted a bunch of DLLs so it would load faster.

All of this is a long way of saying that while the idea of leveraging an existing body of work like Eclipse may sound good on the surface, there are often very solid underlying reasons for why it's not being done.

[list]Thanks,
PeterM[/list]

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