Hi Lucas,
I had exactly this conversation with our local Microchip FAE, who was
"astounded" when I pointed out what looked like bloated code from the Free
mode on the compiler vs the Pro mode. =20
His exact words were "I can't believe that Microchip would deliberately
bloat the code to make you buy the pro version".

Hmm, not convinced by that at all.  It's good to see that you have the same
findings (albeit your documentation on the facts are much more detailed tha=
n
mine!).


As for your comment about electronics companies investing in the compiler t=
o
save 10% on code space - we did exactly that - mainly because the chip was
full to bursting, but after some pressure our distributor heavily discounte=
d
the compiler price for us.  (we use just short of 800k PIC 18F's a year so =
a
couple of dollar cents per unit makes a huge cash saving).

Your comments on ARM are valid too, we looked at moving to an M0+ just
before Christmas, and I secured a discount on the IAR compiler of 15% if we
bought 4 copies. - I mentioned this to the head of D&D and within a couple
of days, a box arrived from IAR with the 4 compilers and 4 I-jet programmer=
s
in.
To this day - we still haven't decided upon whether to move to ARM or not -
So I have a nice shiny Dongle in the back of my USB hub at home and I'm jus=
t
playing with it now.  A waste so far of =A39,800 but I am getting some nice
experience with the compiler and CMSIS.

-Jim






-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
Lucas Tanure
Sent: 01 March 2014 20:17
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [PIC] C Compiler Experiences

My two cents,
please read :
http://www.t4f.org/articles/optimization-of-microchip-pic-xc8-compiler-in-f=
r
ee-and-pro-mode/

--
Lucas A. Tanure Alves
+55 (19) 988176559


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