On May 20, 2006, at 7:20 AM, Dave Lag wrote:

>> The other is that developing custom firmware is expensive. This
>> could be addressed by providing working modules for common
>> applications.

Ok.  I've seen manufacturers and third parties who offer "code
builder" tools that claim to produce code for you based on some
very high-level descriptions and/or GUI tools.  There seem to be
people trying to make a living doing such things for some of the
more complex peripherals out there (go to any trade show...)

I've never been very impressed.  Beyond a compiler or "stamp"-like
product with a good library functions (JAL and Parallax come to mind),
this seems like such tools would be merely another source of bugs.
Bugs that would be VERY hard to find if you were counting on not
having to understand the peripheral in a product where its correct
operation was important!

Has anyone used these tools with success?   Am I just old-fashioned?

(I was particularly distressed with the Cypress PSOC parts, since
such a tools seemed to be the ONLY way to fiddle with the non-micro
configurable logic blocks.  I don't recall seeing any info on dealing
with the logic at the base level at all...)

BillW
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