C18 basic question

If you saw the code that C18 generates with integer promotions enabled, you might guess why it's not the default. It's not that integer promotions require a lot of extra code on a PIC18; Hi-Tech's compiler with integer promotions enabled generates better code than C18 does with them disabled.

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John W. Temples, III

I was kind of disappointed when the open-source small processor C compiler initiative stalled (SPCC? SBCC?)

But hey: if there's no one to work on it, that says something about it's viability.

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www.wescottdesign.com

That would be SDCC, and the latest snapshot was released two weeks ago. I don't know how much has changed since the last stable release about a year ago, so I can't comment on whether development has stalled or not. I've also never used it, so can't comment on its quality either.

As a general point, however, small CISC 8-bit micros are getting steadily less popular for new projects. So anyone interested in working on open source compilers is more likely to look at gcc or lvm - they are much more active projects. It's nice that SDCC is still around, and still being developed and improved, however.

Thats an interesting read Jon, Thanks. I also started out playing with the

16C55 windowed EPROM devices. Only I didnt progress past assembler until very recently. My crash & burn software development took quite a while waiting for the UV eraser to do its thing.

Cheers.

Thanks Tim.

SDCC.

And it's useless for PICs, in part because someone decided that strict ANSI/ISO conformance would be a good idea, even to the extent of having a common pointer type for both RAM and flash, so it isn't compatible with any of Microchip's libraries.