Someone asked on another list recently about a more-GUI-like
assembler for AVR on Macs, and I thought "ah hah!  An excuse
to learn how to do more with Mac programming than unix CLI
utilities!  The "DropAVRA" download here:
     http://homepage.mac.com/westfw/FileSharing22.html
is a somewhat unfinished but usable example.  It's a bit of
Applescript wrapped around the "avra" (open source) assembler
and the Atmel processor include files, all bundled together
into a "droplet" application bundle.  You drag your .asm file
over and drop it on the DropAVR icon, and it invokes the assembler,
saves the log and results and opens them in TextEdit for perusal.
(you'll need to have /tmp, and not need "/tmp/foowew")

(actually RUN the application, and you get a version display
and the option to control whether you generate and display the
listing.)

It could use some more work in the way of options setting...

I'm not sure such things are genuinely useful, but in addition
to its main behavior, this is an interesting and perhaps useful
example of getting the Mac GUI to interface with unix cli apps.
People even vaguely familiar with AppleScript and MacOS should
have no problem converting this to a PIC assembler droplet, for
instance.

(The eventual goal is to have it be "smart" and recognize the
type of file and the unix app that it should use to process it,
perhaps including "drop a .tar.gz file and get a finished unix
app."  It's pretty far from that and may stay that way; the more
complex the behavior, the more configuration necessary, and the
less GUI-ish it becomes...)

Comments welcome.

BillW

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