I'm just now evaluating the latest Keil c51 tool. In the past, I've used c compilers for other embedded platforms. Many of these other platforms not only provided a good compiler, but provided great code "examples" and libraries. For instance, a already coded character LCD "library". So far with the evaluation of Keil, I've noticed rather minimal library support. And the examples that I looked at didn't look like they would be very helpful to me. I've got a couple questions: 1) Does a purchased version contain additional libraries that the evaluation version does not? Any extra stuff that would speed up the process of coding basic interface libraries common to most embedded systems (i2c, lcd, keypad, etc)? 2) How is the documentation on the compiler\tools? Thorough and easy to get up to speed on? Thanks John Yemos
There are a number of examples on this web site at: http://www.keil.com/download/c51.asp. As far as libraries, there are none provided for hardware interfaced peripherals. Over 500 8051 devices are supported (some of them include LCD controllers). When you consider how many LCD controllers there are and the number of 8051 devices and the number of ways you could possibly interface the LCD, the likelyhood of a generic LCD library becomes nearly impossible. Nonetheless, there are plenty of places to find LCD routines on the web. I'd probably start with http://www.8052.com. For documentation, printed manuals are included and HTML manuals are available on the web site, the support knowledgebase actually answers about 90% of all technical support questions (for those who can read :-), and this discussion forum solves a lot of problems and is a good place to get feedback about ideas and locate other sources of information. But, of course, I'm biased. Maybe someone else would like to take a crack at answering your questions. Jon
Oh yeah, I2C routines are available for some devices at http://www.keil.com/i2c/. Jon
Oh wow...I must have overlooked that. I'm 99% sure we are purchasing Keil on Monday, however I'm going to get a jump start on my getting up to speed with Keil over the weekend. Thanks for the links Jon
Although I am kind of surprised not to see a standard hitachi 2 or 4 line LCD C library\example being that it's 'the standard'. One library\example could handle both 4 or 8 bit modes for 1, 2, or 4 line displays. From a user perspective, it would sure save some development time. John
All the manuals are included in PDF when you install the product - even the evaluation. They can be accessed directly from the 'Books' window in the uVision IDE. When you buy, you get printed manuals too. For library functions, just click on the function name in your source, then press F1 - the online help for that function will appear. Unfortunately, there is no similar facility for the C51 extended keywords :-( For error messages, just click on the message in the build Output window and press F1 - documentation for the message will appear. Unfortunately, as I've mentioned before, Keil have really missed an opportunity with this one: the additional help is often no more than just a restatement the original message text, and many of the newer messages are just not covered at all. :-(