Which is the most suitable and flexible programming tool for PIC programming??

Hi,

I'm new here .... I have a question about the best and more flexible programming tool (language) for the Microchip PICs?? especially to make use of UART and the other important facilities of the PICs

bilal.mubdir said:

Hi,
I'm new here .... I have a question about the best and more flexible programming tool (language) for the Microchip PICs?? especially to make use of UART and the other important facilities of the PICs

Click to expand...

Flowcode is one of the world's most advanced graphical programming languages for microcontrollers. The great advantage of Flowcode is that it allows those with little to no programming experience to create complex electronic systems in minutes. Flowcode is available in more than twenty languages and currently supports the PICmicro, dsPIC, PIC24, AVR and ARM series of microcontrollers.

http://www.matrixmultimedia.com/flowcode.php

Flowcode software allows those with little to no programming experience to create complex electronic systems in minutes. Flowcode is available in 20 languages and is used by thousands of engineers and educators.

I would say the most flexible is the one that allows you most control over the PIC operation, that's assembly language. Microchip produce an excellent free assembler called MPLAB (and a newer one with a few bugs to be ironed out called MPLABX). If you want to use higher level languages, you can download free versions of XC8, XC16 and XC32 'C' compilers from the microchip web site which integrate with MPLAB/MPLABX. The compilers are fully functional but have extra features if you buy a license.

If you want a simple and fast "rapid application development" tool, the best I've found so far (and I've been programming PICs for over 20 years) is WIZ-C from Forest Electronic Developments (http://www.fored.co.uk). It's a full featured optimizing C compiler for most of the PIC12, PI14, PIC16 and PIC18 devices and has a comprehensive peripheral library and graphical debugging tool. There is a free trial version on the web site.


Brian.

Guys, thank you a lot

By the way I have a good experience in PIC's programming by using "Proton" software but I need something more advanced and easier for UART interface and other peripheral.

Regards,

Bilal

Take a look at WIZ then. If you use the RAD, all you do is click on the UART (or two if the PIC has them), drag a line between the TX and RX and the pins on the PIC (if they are not fixed in hardware) then fill in the parameters box to set the Baud rate. It even has fully buffered transmit and receive queues so you can let the UART function run in the background while your program does somethng else. You can also use a 'real time' serial interface or timed stimulus files. It has similar abilities for other peripherals. The really nice thing is the debugger speed, my i7 machine can simulate a program in the debugger at an equivalent PIC clock speed of about 30MHz so in most cases the simulation can run faster than real hardware. I have another "up to date" PIC simulator here which puts me to sleep it's so slow!

If you don't use the RAD, it still works as a full featured C compiler and assembler with all the debugging and simulation facilities. It's one of the few simulators that can run multiple PIC programs in different PICs and trace how they interact with each other. For example, using two PICs, each running their own programs, it could show one sending data out through it's UART and the other one would show it being received.

Brian.

thanks Brian, I appreciate your great help
I tried it, it's really amazing program but I have my personal problem in C programming because I didn't study it before and the second problem is that the WIZ is trail version.

Regards