> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu 
> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Herbert Graf
> Sent: 07 July 2009 20:16
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: RE: [PIC] Is Hitech C deliberately slugging code in 
> thefree version..?
> 
> On Tue, 2009-07-07 at 19:34 +0100, Michael Rigby-Jones wrote:
> > Do you also believe that HiTech's previous FREE compiler was 
> > unacceptable because it only supported a very few devices and had 
> > memory limits on most of them?
> 
> Nope, since that's the way it had always been. People knew 
> going in what the limitations were.
> 
> > They are now simply offering an alternative FREE compiler that is 
> > crippled in a different way.  How on earth is this 'not acceptable'?
> 
> It isn't an alternative, it's a replacement. Yes, the old one 
> is still available, but it's not going to be updated. Anyone 
> familiar with compilers knows that a compiler that isn't 
> receiving bug fixes is worse then useless, it WILL end up 
> wasting your time.
> 
> > Does someone currently have a gun pressed to you head 
> forcing you to 
> > use this particular free compiler?  It's apparently very acceptable 
> > for a large number of users who can now use any PIC they 
> want, albeit 
> > with higher memory usage and slower execution times.
> 
> I never said it wasn't useful.
> 
> > Had you paid money for a compiler with this kind of performance I 
> > could understand your attitude, but I am at a complete loss to 
> > understand this outcry about a FREE product.
> 
> My outcry is the "redefinition" of the product. Yes, they 
> added something really nice, but they took a huge thing away, 
> and DIDN'T TELL PEOPLE ABOUT IT. That's what "grinds my 
> gears". If they said that all optimization was gone, that 
> code that fit and ran at a certain speed with the old 
> compiler would be significantly bigger and run much slower 
> I'd be more understanding. They didn't: people had to figure 
> that out by themselves. This tells me they KNEW it would 
> upset people, so they hid it, hoping no-one would notice. 


When you download the compiler, the web page has a table comparing the
features of Lite mode with Pro mode, which clearly shows which
optimisations are disabled (all of them except a few printf
optimisations).  Hardly typical behaviour for a company trying to hide
something is it?

There are a lot of people using this compiler, I guess it can't be as
useless or as upsetting to people as you seem to think.  I see the very
occaisional post on the support forum from people reaching the
limitations of the Lite compiler, either getting lower than expected
speeds when bit bashing various peripherals, or running out of memory on
smaller devices, generaly when trying to use floating point math and/or
formatted I/O functions.  However, assembly can still be used for speed
critical stuff if required and the compiler allows you to use the larger
PIC's with lots of peripherals, so bit bashing stuff can be avoided in
many cases, and you can use all of the memory in these parts.  This is
no different to the limited free versions of other tools, e.g. Eagle
where you are limited to a small PCB size with two layers.

Regarding the legacy compiler, it was based on the last version of the
previous compiler generation (prior to the OCG comilers), so it's quite
a mature compiler.  There are still many people using that version as
well so clearly it's not worse than useless.

Seems to me that unless HiTech give away a full compiler and free
support then you are never going to be happy with them.

Regards

Mike

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