Olin wrote:
>
> Joe Bento wrote:
>
>> I'm currently concentrating on the 10/12/16 PICs since I have a small
>> collection of several devices.
>
> While I know it's possible, I really wouldn't want a compiler between me
> and
> a 12 bit core PIC for any real project.

True.  Even for the examples in my baseline (12-bit core) C tutorials
(http://www.gooligum.com.au/tut_baseline_C.html) it became quite apparent,
as the examples became more complex, that both the HI-TECH and CCS C
compilers I was using were struggling.
The tutorials showed how to implement the examples from my baseline PIC
assembler  tutorials (http://www.gooligum.com.au/tut_baseline.html) in C,
using the free compilers bundled with MPLAB.  Flashing LEDs is no problem.
 But when it came to replicating the assembler lesson where I implemented
a buffer to demonstrate indirect addressing, neither C compiler was able
to correctly generate code for accessing an array placed in bank 1.
I can understand why - indirect memory access and bank selection are
intertwined in the baseline architecture, because FSR is used for both -
so getting it right is tricky, especially when very little shared memory
is available.  As I said, it was beyond either compiler.
I also had to battle compiler bugs (acknowledged by the vendors after I
reported them) and poorly documented built-in functions at various times.

Overall, unless what you're doing is trivial, forget C on baseline PICs.


David Meiklejohn
www.gooligum.com.au


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