Re: [anjuta-devel] Selecting and storing AVR debug platform and target device

[Sébastien Granjoux <seb sfo free fr>]

Hi,


Le 30/05/2011 12:57, Lucas van Dijk a écrit :
> You have several AVR debug platforms, like the AVR Dragon, the JTAG ICE
> mkII, JTAG ICE mkI, and the simulator. each platform does not support
> all devices, and their supported devices list will differ from each
> other. So when creating a new project, and you select a certain debug
> platform, the list where you can select the target device should be
> dynamically filled with data. Is that possible with the autogen based
> project wizards? And if not, how should I implement it? Create a dialog
> in C which opens directly after the project wizard? Create a dialog
> which opens before compiling/debugging if the target device isn't yet
> selected?

It is possible to change something dynamically in the project wizard. 
That's the reason why there are several pages. After choosing something 
on one page, you can check the value to display something different in 
the other pages.

By example
	<property type="boolean" name="HavePackageExtra" _label="Configure 
external packages:" _description="Use pkg-config to add library support 
from other packages" default="0"/>
</page>

[+IF (=(get "HavePackageExtra") "1")+]
<page name="packages" _label="Configure external packages" 
_description="Configure external packages">
	<property type="package" name="PackageModule2" _label="Require 
Package:" _description="Give a package name that your project require. 
You may also mention what is the required version of the package. For 
example, 'libgnomeui-2.0' or 'libgnomeui-2.0 &gt;= 2.2.0'" mandatory="yes"/>
</page>
[+ENDIF+]

Here the whole page "Configure external packages" will be displayed only 
if you have checked HavePackageExtra on the previous page.

If your relation between device and debug platform is known, it should 
not be a problem, you have a CASE macro. If you need to run a script, 
it's a bit more annoying but I think it's possible.


I think it would be better to be able to configure this in the project 
wizard. The advantage is that you don't need to write a new dialog. The 
issue is that if you need to change it after creating the project you 
will have to create a dialog for this but you will still have a default 
value. I don't know if it makes sense or not. Note that several project 
properties are set in the project wizard but can still be changed 
afterward in the project properties dialog.


> And when the user selects a debug platform and target device, where do
> we store that information? It's required in almost every part of the
> development process: compiling, debugging and programming it on to the
> AVR. So a configure.ac <http://configure.ac> is required to check if
> avr-gcc is available, and sets the CC to avr-gcc, and must set some
> compiler arguments too containing the target device and maybe the CPU
> frequency as a define.

Is it something that is inside the configure.ac (the program is working 
only for a predefined platform) or is it something that is set when you 
run configure (the program could be compiled for different platform) ?


If it is inside configure.ac, the project manager parses it so it should 
be able to give you all informations needed. It could need some 
improvements in the autotools backend. As I'm currently working on it, 
it shouldn't be a big problem.

If it is an option of the configure step, it's saved in anjuta session 
data. (in .anjuta/session/anjuta.session). Perhaps we could check 
config.status to get more information but it's not done currently.


> When debugging, a GDB server has to be started, for example AVaRICE for
> JTAG or debugWire debugging. AVaRICE (and the simulator too) requires
> the target device when starting. avr-gdb doesn't require the target
> device so that makes it a little easier. But where do we get the target
> device from? I think I'll make an entry in the tools (or an AVR specifc)
> menu, where you can start/stop AVaRICE or the simulator. The best thing
> would be start, without any dialog to enter additional information like
> the target device (as it's already given in the project creation
> wizard), but we need to retreive the given target device from somewhere.
>
> AVRDude also requires the target device, so we need the target device
> available in the code.
>
> Do you have any suggestions about that?

If your project is really specific to a device. I think this should be 
written in the configure.ac file. The project wizard can ask the 
information and write the corresponding configure.ac. Then the project 
manager will read this file and this information will appear as one of 
the project properties.

But, I'm not sure a program is really specific to one device and then 
it's less clear.


Best Regards,

Sébastien