Arm has launched the Arm Development Studio, the latest suite of tools for embedded C/C++ software development on any Arm-based platform. Building on over 25 years of experience, Development Studio incorporates many of the best features of previous tool generations, unifying the development flow in a single, easy to use environment.
Users of the previous tool chain, DS-5, will experience a new simplified user interface, a new target connection wizard, as well as for the first time a full set of middleware and other software packs. We encourage all DS-5 users to migrate to Development Studio, which they can do with a minimum of fuss. In this blog, I will explain how.
When you first launch the Development Studio IDE, you will be presented with the default Development Studio perspective. A perspective is a particular way of configuring the layout and available views within the IDE.
This perspective shows both project management and commonly used debug views. It is completely configurable by the user for their preferences, by drag-and-drop of any view around the screen, or by clicking on the + icon in any pane to open views not currently displayed. Most interactions with the tool can be performed within this perspective.
It is possible to reuse your existing DS-5 workspace with Development Studio, by selecting Switch Workspace from the File menu, and Browse to the appropriate location. You will be prompted to migrate the workspace and all projects therein to Development Studio for future compatibility. Note that once migrated, neither the workspace nor the projects should be used within DS-5.
At this point I recommend switching to the Development Studio perspective (from Window menu → Perspective → Open Perspective → Other) to best experience the usability enhancements provided in Development Studio.
If you wish to maintain your DS-5 workspace as it was, you can also import (and copy) your DS-5 projects into your Development Studio workspace. To do this, use the Import Project shortcut within Project Manager pane, or select Import from the File menu.
Within the wizard, navigate to General → Existing Projects into Workspace
And then use your DS-5 workspace location as root directory to locate projects. Select the project(s) you wish to import from the list.
Ensure you enable Copy projects into workspace to take a local copy of the project, so that the original DS-5 projects are unaffected.
After importing, you will be prompted to migrate these projects to Development Studio projects, which you should do to ensure compatibility going forwards.
Development Studio is supplied with the latest Arm Compiler version, 6.11. This industry leading compiler is recommended for all new code. To support older code bases, we also supply Arm Compiler 5, though this is not recommended for new designs. A common concern that users have as they move to new tool chains is that they do not necessarily wish to change compiler versions for existing projects. Arm also offers safety-qualified releases of Arm Compiler that certain applications demand are used.
If you do need to use a different compiler version, it is easy to add other compiler versions to your Development Studio installation. Open the Preferences pane (from the Windows menu), and locate the Toolchains panel. You can use the filter text box to help locate this quickly.
Click the Add button to be prompted to add the compiler installation you wish to use. If you do not already have the version you need installed on your machine, use the helpful shortcuts to go to the Arm Compiler homepage, where you can locate the appropriate installation package for your required version. Similarly you can also access the latest GNU Arm toolchains.
Browse to the installation location and click Next.
Development Studio will be able to determine the compiler version, and will add this to the available compilers you can use.
Click on Finish. You will see the added compiler available. Click OK to close this view when done (you will be prompted to restart the IDE).
To use this compiler version in any project, right-click on the project and open it’s Properties pane.
Navigate to the Tool Chain Editor view, and select the newly installed compiler version from the Current toolchain pull down. Click on OK to close. The project can then be rebuilt with this compiler version.
Moving to a new development environment can be a daunting task. With Development Studio, we have enabled existing DS-5 users to easily migrate their code examples to the new IDE. If detailed information is needed, please also see the DS-5 migration guide.
But this is only one of the many new features available. Why not try it out for yourself by downloading a free 30-day evaluation license for the product. Arm will also soon host a free webinar to introduce Development Studio in more detail. To register for this webinar please visit this link.
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