I’m chasing down a weird include problems in my project: Somehow it looks like the compiler is including the wrong file, causing strange compiler errors. I admit: the include order with all the #defines is pretty complicated, most of it I have inherited from an open source project. How to know who is including what, which files is included by whom? what is included directly, and what is included indirectly?
Writing Processor Expert components is not always completely independent of the compiler and underlying microcontroller. In many cases I need to know the compiler for which the source code is generated. Or I need to know on which CPU architecture the code shall run. For this I need to know the compiler and the CPU family.
If I’m debugging my application in Eclipse or CodeWarrior, it shows in the Variables view the local and global variables of the current Thread and stack frame only:
Debug View with Variables View
This makes sense as this is usually where my focus is. And this is good from a performance point of view: The debugger does not need to read a lot of other variables from the target which I’m not interested in. But the question is: how to show the variables which are in other files if I really need to look at them?
Technically, a normal user component can implement any RTOS. This is what I did with the Micrium MicroC/OS-II component. That way the component shows up in the ‘Embedded Components’ group. But how to make it showing up as RTOS component inside the ‘Operating System’ group as the FreeRTOS component? What I want is this: to show the RTOS component under the ‘Operating System’ group of my project:
FreeRTOS in the Operating System Group
Ah, a lot of work went into a new Processor Expert component, and finally it shows up in the component library:
default user icon
Oh, wait: *that* icon does not look nice enough for that amount of work behind the component?
In my previous post I mentioned the Drivers\Common folder which has ‘include’ files. These files are maintained automatically by the Component Wizard. But what is the purpose of these files?
The Common Folder has *.inc files which are included in the driver as ‘function’ header. The .inc file contains documentation about the function and parameters for that function.
What I describe here is an overview about the different locations, folder and files you will see if you are importing or developing a Processor Expert User component. I’m showing below example screenshot for the FreeRTOS component, as this is probably the most complex one I ever have created.
No, this is not about how to fold Eclipse: it is about the Folding feature of the Eclipse editor view. My source files tend to get much larger than a single screen page. The Eclipse framework comes with many great editor and navigation features, but it would be great to have the amount of information reduced. Well, it can look like this:
Source file with source folding
If you are new to Processor Expert in MCU10, and new to FreeRTOS, then you need to learn two new things in parallel the same time. That might be overwhelming. But don’t worry: if you do things step by step and slowly the first time, this much easier than you might think. This tutorial shall help you with this.
This is a step-by-step tutorial about how to create a project with CodeWarrior for MCU10.2, Processor Expert and the DEMOJM board. The goal is to create a project from scratch with two tasks blinking an LED. This tutorial uses the DEMOJM board, but in practice any other ColdFire/Kinetis/S08 board can be used as well.
Occasionally I run into this kind of problem: I have downloaded my application, and it immediately crashes or looses the connection:
What happened?
What is the problem? It is helpful to understand what happens if I press ‘debug’ in CodeWarrior or any other debugger:
MCU on Eclipse 