NOT using the IDE - where to start?

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NOT using the IDE - where to start?

(12 posts) (8 voices)

Started 4 years ago by augustl
Latest reply from gbulmer

augustl
Member

There's two reasons I don't want to use the IDE: I prefer Emacs, and I want to know what's going on under the hood.

Using the Makefile helps with the former, but not the latter. Especially true when most of your programming experience comes from scripting languages :)

I'm currently diving into the makefile, in attempt to reverse engineer what commands are being run, where, and on what. I'd appreciate any help I can get, though.

Regardless, I'll try to add content to http://wiki.leaflabs.com/ as I learn more.

Posted 4 years ago #
perry
Administrator

Hi augustl,

You can use this guide here to stay in emacs-land:
http://leaflabs.com/docs/unix-toolchain.html

Posted 4 years ago #
augustl
Member

Thanks!

But it doesn't seem to help me understand what's going on, though. The makefile is just as much of a black box as the IDE.

I'm not after a holding of hands from A to Z, but any help I can get in making this happen would be greatly appreciated :)

Posted 4 years ago #
StephenFromNYC
Moderator

Hello augustl,

Welcome to the Maple. I think the next year will be very exciting, with the arrival of the new IDE and the new boards, and with new users who want to learn the details. Eventually, I may become more interested in this level of detail, but in the near future I will be more focused on contributing and testing new features (in particular DMA coupled to isochronous USB data transfers using double-buffers; I think that is possible).

Is there any guide from Arduino-land which has the right amount of "behind the scene" explanations which will make you happy? This might result in an improved answer from a user or at least a "that is something which we have on our to do list" answer from the leaflabs crew.

Of even better, one of the maple/arduino linux code sourcery gurus might be able to take an Arduino guide which you like and quickly translate it it into something for the Maple.

A few months ago there were some topics related to compiler optimizations settings. Is this the info which you want?

On a more practical note, I understand that you do not want to use the IDE. However, were you able to compile and upload any sketches using the unix-toolchain or the IDE? This will at least you that everything is installed in the expected places.

I have not tried to add content to the wiki, but I am looking forward to your contributions.

Good luck-

Stephen from NYC (full disclosure: I am not a member of the LeafLabs staff)

Posted 4 years ago #
gbulmer
Moderator

augustl - depending on the platform you use, their are likely some make flags which may help you understand what the makefile is doing. They are typed on the command line when you run make.

For example, this lists common make options:
http://unixhelp.ed.ac.uk/CGI/man-cgi?make

The options:
-d Print debugging information in addition to normal processing.
-n, --just-print, --dry-run, --recon Print the commands that would be executed, but do not execute them.

There is also
--debug[=FLAGS]
which can be used to control how much information is printed.

mbolivar
LeafLabs

augustl,

What specific problems are you having getting the command-line toolchain set up on your system?

Posted 4 years ago #

augustl
Member

@mbolivar: The specific problem I'm having is that I'm not able to figure out is how to build the file that I can upload to the maple, and how to do the actual uploading.

Even more specifically, how do I get from linked .o-files to a .bin-file (whatever that might be).

Posted 4 years ago #

snigelen
Member

Hi,

Did you click on the link perry posted?

make will build your program
make install will upload it

make V=1 will show the full command line of every command executed by make (for libmaple, not in general). Maybe you want do do a
make clean first.

The Makefile (and the files included by the Makefile) is pretty complex for libmaple. The files involved are

Makefile
build-targets.mk
libmaple/support/make/build-rules.mk
libmaple/support/make/build-templates.mk

Posted 4 years ago #

mbolivar
LeafLabs

augustl,

yup, as snigelen says, the link perry posted has pretty detailed answers for exactly those questions.

other files involved in the build chain are libmaple/libmaple/rules.mk and libmaple/wirish/rules.mk.

each of the individual libraries (in the subdirectories under libmaple/libraries) also has its own rules.mk file.

you don't really need to understand these details; mostly, just read the tutorial perry linked and be aware that build-targets.mk has the rule to build main. also check out the "library" top-level Makefile target if you want to build libmaple as a static archive to link against.

Posted 4 years ago #

Martin
Member

Sorry to open again this old thread, but i'm facing the same issue as augustl. I installed the unix-toolchain as in perry's link and played with the example and wrote my own code and everything is fine.

I also built the static library using 'make library'. Now i'd like to continue my own project and link it to libmaple.a. What is missing is an example Makefile to build a project with multiple source file which are not in libmaple's directory and link it to libmaple.a and upload it to the device.

Playing with main.cpp in libmaple's directory is fun to start and get used to the maple board but not really suits bigger projects.

Posted 4 years ago #

robodude666
Member

For my projects, I modified the make and build-target files to compile my other project files instead of using the library.

I am using something similar to the PreenFM project.

It would be nice, however, to see some documentation on how to build the library once and link your project against it - for those of us less familiar with Makefiles.

Posted 4 years ago #

gbulmer
Moderator

I assume the Makefile is correct. in which case make will only rebuild the library if there is a source file which is newer than the library. That is how make works.

Martin - So, the information that is missing is how to add your own source files to the Makefile set?
Earlier in this thread the discussion mentions build-targets.mk which should include a list of the source files you need to be included in the final binary. The rues in the other makefiles will work out how to convert from source files for you.

Posted 4 years ago #

NOT using the IDE - where to start?

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