The Next Step!

[funlw65]

In my opinion, Firewing badly needs an update. The microcontroller used is old, of old technology. The speed now is 70MIPS(140MHz) and there are the 5vcc native devices - that we really want. Remember, the 5Vcc native is the main reason people are coming back to PIC18F... and AVR. And the PDIP case, of course.

A simple translation of the header file is not enough for the devices with the increased speed. The code generated for the clock is wrong. BTW, a development board is designed always around the micro with the biggest flash size.

PIC24 and dsPIC33 are an amazing 16bit micros, is really a shame that are not promoted as it should and there are no open source tools that supports them. So we are forced back on 8bit or up to 32bit micros that mostly means STM32... An amazing world that remains unexplored by the "makers". It would be the solution against Cortex M0 cores...

But what do I know? I'm just a bum who rarely affords to buy a microcontroller or two!

[funlw65]

David, I know you know assembler... there is a free, open source assembler for PIC24, dsPIC33... it might be the solution instead of a locked C compiler?

naken_asm

[Jerry Messina]

...there is a free, open source assembler for PIC24, dsPIC33

That's not really the issue.
Firewing doesn't generate asm code, it generates HLL code (in C or BASIC) and then uses another tool to create the asm for 8, 16, or 32-bit devices.

Having Firewing directly create the asm code for all the different target devices would be a huge undertaking!

[funlw65]

I'm telling you also that the generated C code for an EV (5Vcc, at maximum speed) device with external crystal is not correct...

And, if I remember right, the settings for the clock are generated in assembler?

[Jerry Messina]

The last version of XC16 tested with Firewing was XC16 version 1.11, so anything past that is questionable.
How well/if you can get that to work with the EV is something I can't answer.

I don't recall Firewing doing any clock setup, so if there's something that needs adjusting you'd have to add that yourself.

[David John Barker]

I take your point on the fact the compiler needs updating, but I will not be updating it.

Any work on a compiler (as pointed out) is generally a huge task and sadly I just don't have the time to do it any more. Any spare time I may have will focus on the Swordfish compiler (it has to be said, users should be thankful to Jerry Messina for keeping the Swordfish project alive).

I'm very sorry about this and it's not a decision I've taken likely, but Firewing is now definitely an end of life product.