I am still trying to sort out a set of tools for the STM32 (and possibly other ARM processors). I know there have been several discussions on here. I have very little money as I am essentially a hobby user.
Raisonance RIDE7 and the ARM toolit provide what appears to be a good IDE and a version of the GNU ARM tools. It is free and unrestricted. So far I quite like it. To program and debug a real target from within RIDE, it seems I would need an RLINK JTAG device at about £55. Debugging would be limited to 32k of code. If I didn't want to debug the target and could live with a simulator, I can use the free ST serial bootloader software but that is a bit clunky.
I have a restricted version of IAR workbench and a J-Link JTAG device. The restriction is 32k generated code but I think the debugging is unrestricted. This works very well but I certainly can't afford a full version of the IAR compiler and the IDE is a bit stone-age.
There is Rowley Crossworks. It all seems to look good and I can use the J-Link that I have. The personal license is £88 and is unrestricted apart from the non-profit constraint. I believe Rowley also use the GNU tools.
I definitely don't want to be messing with a bunch of different tools for different purposes if I can help it at all.
It looks like my most cost-effecive option for an integrated set of tools is Raisonance and the expense of a 32k debugging limit which I can live with. My projects are small robots and interactive debugging is tricky when they are dashing about.
Anyone got any opinion about the Raisonance tools and Rlink? Or would I be better off stumping up for the Rowley tools and use my J-Link?
Pete Harrison