In Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – Repositories with VS Code and Tutorial: Getting Started with MCUXpresso SDK – west I showed how to get the MCUXpresso SDK. In this article it is about tweaking and streamlining the project.
The result is a clean, portable and self-contained MCUXpresso SDK project.
Test coverage is a very useful metric: it tells how much of your code has been covered by tests. Or the other way: it helps identifying areas of my code which has not been running tests. A new CMake extension in VS Code is available. It works with the new NXP LinkServer test runner to allow running tests on an embedded target. The really cool thing is: it collects and visualizes test data with coverage information in a single step:
The release 24.9.75 of LinkServer software and tools includes interesting feature: the ability to use the debug probe for automated on-target testing. It includes a ‘runner’ which can program, launch and run the application on the target through a debug probe. While the target is running, it uses semihosting or UART for communication. This makes it a perfect tool for automated testing, especially in a CI/CD environment. One such environment is running automated tests with CMake and CTest in VS Code.
One key element of a CI/CD pipeline is the automatic testing phase: whenever I check in new source code or manually trigger it, I can run a test suite to make sure that the changes do not break anything. For this, I have to run automated tests. For an an embedded target, it means that I have to run some tests on the board itself too.
I’m getting my head more and more around CMake and its features. After having so many issues with VS Code dealing with CMake Kits, I have found feature in CMake which really is a game changer for me: CMake Presets.
One important thing in using VS Code and CMake projects is that one needs to have a CMake kit assigned to the project. But after a restart of VS Code or if I re-load a project, VS Code has lost the previously assigned CMake kit:
This is very annoying, but luckily I have found a fix for this.
Continue readingA Triumvirate is or Triarchy is built by three individuals which lead or rule something. In this article I want to rule a project with Eclipse CDT, Visual Studio Code and with building it from the command line for automated builds.
So what if I have an Eclipse project (say MCUXpresso IDE and SDK), and want to build it on a build server, and and I want to use the same time the project with Eclipse IDE and Visual Studio code?
Key to this is CMake: I’m keeping the Eclipse CDT features, adding CMake with Make and Ninja to the fix, and have it ‘ruled’ by three different ’emperor’: Eclipse, Visual Studio Code and from a shell console:
MCU vendors offer SDKs and configuration tools: that’s a good thing, because that way I can get started quickly and get something up and running ideally in a few minutes. But this gets you into a dependency on tools, SDK and configuration tools too: changing later from one MCU to another can be difficult and time consuming. So why not get started with a ‘bare’ project, using general available tools, just with a basic initialization (clocking, startup code, CMSIS), even with the silicon vendor provided IDE and basic support files?
In this case, I show how you easily can do this with CMake, make and Eclipse, without the (direct) need of an SDK.
With a steady release train, NXP has released last week a new and updated version of their flagship IDE: the version 11.6.0 of the MCUXpresso IDE.
And there are several new and cool features with that release, including a power & energy profiler and CMake support.
Continue readingThe previous parts were about installation, project setup, building, debugging and setting up a kit. This one is about setting up IntelliSense for Cross Development in Visual Studio Code which allows for browsing symbols or code completion:
