Free alternative to MPLAB (PIC development) [closed]

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I started using MPLAB recently, but for someone that works with Eclipse and VS the IDE it's very limited. Do you know any free IDE or how to configure Ecplise or Netbeans to PIC development?

Thanks all

Atlantic answered 21/1, 2011 at 18:12 Comment(1)

Note that configuring Eclipse or Netbeans to allow development for a specific PIC would be an on-topic question for Stack Overflow, but I cannot in good conscience make the edit that changes this question into asking that, because it would invalidate many, if not all, of the existing answers. – Beverly 9/11, 2021 at 7:40

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The underlying toolchain (compiler/linker etc.) can be used from any environment including Eclipse and Visual Studio, though Eclipse is probably the more flexible in this respect.

MPLAB has a feature to export a project as a makefile that can be used with GNU make, although you may rather generate your own makefile, or use the project management provided by Eclipse. In Visual Studio, create a Makefile Project, despite its name, you can specify any build command line, so invoke a batch file or makefile as necessary. Eclipse can use makefile projects also.

In Visual Studio, add all your project and compiler Include paths to teh project manually to get all the Intellisense navigation features to work.

Martingale answered 22/1, 2011 at 12:27 Comment(4)

The make file is the easy part especially with the PIC24 which use a gcc variant. I looked into running the debugger and programmer from visual studio and it looked to be possible but it would require more time than I wanted to put into figuring it out so I still have to use MPLAB when talking to the hardware. – Jopa 23/1, 2011 at 3:24

@Rex: Yes seamless debugger integration is unlikely to be possible. What I do is configure the "debug" build in Visual Studio to launch a batch file that in turn launches the external debugger when the build was successful. I have done this with Keil/ARM tools, not MPLAB but imagine that it is possible. A note about MPLAB's makefile export though, it does not include pre/post build steps if you have configured your project to use them, so a build from a makefile is not identical to a build from an MPLAB project file! I raise the issue with Microchip support, and they couldn't care less. – Martingale 23/1, 2011 at 10:7

I reasearch a little bit and I already found how to do the all proccess (compiling and programming) using the command line. Tomorrow I'll try to configure Eclipse to do that, but to debug I can only do it in MPLab. If anyone knows how to do it please let me know. – Atlantic 23/1, 2011 at 18:33

I tried GNU make file with make from MinGW - linker gave error unrecognized input: E:/MinGW/msys/1.0/p18F45K22 (/p18F45K22 is an option passed to linker). I fixed that by changing options to - instead of / - ex. /p18F45K22 to -p18F45K22 – Pammy 22/9, 2012 at 9:18

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There is a version of MPLAB X that is based on Netbeans.

Chadbourne answered 21/1, 2011 at 18:19 Comment(2)

+1 -- at last!!!! a real IDE! Now if they would just release a C++ compiler based on gcc instead of the C compiler. – Brassard 18/3, 2011 at 12:19

Worked flawlessly for me so far on WinXP. I don't have the HW, yet. – Altonaltona 20/9, 2012 at 21:29

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The underlying toolchain (compiler/linker etc.) can be used from any environment including Eclipse and Visual Studio, though Eclipse is probably the more flexible in this respect.

MPLAB has a feature to export a project as a makefile that can be used with GNU make, although you may rather generate your own makefile, or use the project management provided by Eclipse. In Visual Studio, create a Makefile Project, despite its name, you can specify any build command line, so invoke a batch file or makefile as necessary. Eclipse can use makefile projects also.

In Visual Studio, add all your project and compiler Include paths to teh project manually to get all the Intellisense navigation features to work.

Martingale answered 22/1, 2011 at 12:27 Comment(4)

The make file is the easy part especially with the PIC24 which use a gcc variant. I looked into running the debugger and programmer from visual studio and it looked to be possible but it would require more time than I wanted to put into figuring it out so I still have to use MPLAB when talking to the hardware. – Jopa 23/1, 2011 at 3:24

@Rex: Yes seamless debugger integration is unlikely to be possible. What I do is configure the "debug" build in Visual Studio to launch a batch file that in turn launches the external debugger when the build was successful. I have done this with Keil/ARM tools, not MPLAB but imagine that it is possible. A note about MPLAB's makefile export though, it does not include pre/post build steps if you have configured your project to use them, so a build from a makefile is not identical to a build from an MPLAB project file! I raise the issue with Microchip support, and they couldn't care less. – Martingale 23/1, 2011 at 10:7

I reasearch a little bit and I already found how to do the all proccess (compiling and programming) using the command line. Tomorrow I'll try to configure Eclipse to do that, but to debug I can only do it in MPLab. If anyone knows how to do it please let me know. – Atlantic 23/1, 2011 at 18:33

I tried GNU make file with make from MinGW - linker gave error unrecognized input: E:/MinGW/msys/1.0/p18F45K22 (/p18F45K22 is an option passed to linker). I fixed that by changing options to - instead of / - ex. /p18F45K22 to -p18F45K22 – Pammy 22/9, 2012 at 9:18

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Some Options:

Piklab (this is a fork of pikdev and better IMO, has a windows version)

Pikdev

You'll probably need gputils which is a set of open source PIC utilities for various things and integrate into the above IDEs.

There is also PIC C builder for Eclipse that would let you build with the C30 compiler, don't think it supports C18 but maybe.

Southpaw answered 21/1, 2011 at 22:39 Comment(1)

Do you know if I can use it to program using MPLAB ICD3? Because I already have one – Atlantic 22/1, 2011 at 11:50

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Do you know any free IDE or how to configure Ecplise or Netbeans to PIC development?

No, but I'd write a US$100 check of my own money in a heartbeat, if Eclipse were available for PICs. The poor quality of MPLAB has been my one and only reason why I don't use Microchip processors anymore. TI's Code Composer is Eclipse-based and it is hugely easier to use and much more reliable than MPLAB.

You could run Eclipse CDT and presumably configure it to use the Microchip compiler (caveat: I've never done this myself). But you wouldn't get any debugging capability, which is 90%+ of the value of an IDE.

Brassard answered 21/1, 2011 at 18:18 Comment(3)

Agreed, but according to Microchip, Eclipse was unsuitable, so they went with Netbeans. While we are all waiting for any improvement on MPLAB, I wouldn't work with the first version of MPLAB X until the bugs are shaken out, given the history. – Ingenue 18/3, 2011 at 9:27

They went with Netbeans? When? I'd use that. The old MPLAB sucked. – Brassard 18/3, 2011 at 12:12

In the MPLAB X which is currently in Beta. – Ingenue 18/3, 2011 at 13:34

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You should definitely switch to MPLAB X. Be warned though that it is a beta release.

Nonetheless it promises to rid us of both windows and the very buggy MPLAB 8.x (I'm not sure about the latter, though). It is a welcome step. I was sifting through their "Getting Started With MPLAB X" slides a little while earlier. In one of the slide it says that they chose NetBeans based IDE over an Eclipse based one because "NetBeans is acknowledged by many as being: More advanced, Less bloated, Faster and More intuitive". I have worked with both of these and I think Eclipse is far superior in about every arena.

Jag answered 1/4, 2011 at 21:53 Comment(0)

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