smr99 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 I have read that at least one other group has moved away from the Delta Tau IDE: in http://forums.deltatau.com/showthread.php?tid=910&pid=3516#pid3516 shansen reports using Eclipse for development. In our case, we have hand-written makefiles because the DT IDE provides no support for changing options. For example, I need to link against the Xenomai "native" library for the RTI CPLC build. I'm looking for some tips specifically related to conveniently deploying the build objects to the Delta Tau. My current procedure is to use the DT IDE to "Build and Download", then I rebuild the RTI CPLC by hand and overwrite the IDE-downloaded file. I would like to automate this. Preferably without involving the IDE. I have learned the hard way that just putting build products in the right place is not enough. One also has to log into the Delta Tau and run "projpp". To shansen: in the quoted post, you made reference to rough notes on using Eclipse. Are you willing to share these? Is the deployment simply arranging the files properly in "/var/ftp" and running "projpp" or am I missing a step? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smr99 Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 I have read that at least one other group has moved away from the Delta Tau IDE: in http://forums.deltatau.com/showthread.php?tid=910&pid=3516#pid3516 shansen reports using Eclipse for development. In our case, we have hand-written makefiles because the DT IDE provides no support for changing options. For example, I need to link against the Xenomai "native" library for the RTI CPLC build. I'm looking for some tips specifically related to conveniently deploying the build objects to the Delta Tau. My current procedure is to use the DT IDE to "Build and Download", then I rebuild the RTI CPLC by hand and overwrite the IDE-downloaded file. I would like to automate this. Preferably without involving the IDE. I have learned the hard way that just putting build products in the right place is not enough. One also has to log into the Delta Tau and run "projpp". To shansen: in the quoted post, you made reference to rough notes on using Eclipse. Are you willing to share these? Is the deployment simply arranging the files properly in "/var/ftp" and running "projpp" or am I missing a step? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shansen Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 smr99: For the benefit of anyone else reading this, I'll give a bit more context before answering your questions. First of all, my company has been using the Power PMAC primarily for non-motion applications. In other words, we have not been using the DT script motion programs at all. Secondly, we have written custom tools to let us download, upload, and backup our project files on the Power PMAC. For example, we are not using DT standard Cplcs, and instead have our own custom framework for creating and managing background or real-time tasks directly. We decided to use Eclipse several years ago for many reasons. Eclipse allows arbitrary project organization, it has GREAT syntax coloring, code auto-formatting, the ability to put revision information into our compiled code for revision tracking, refactoring support, etc ad infinitum. Another big problem for us is that the Delta Tau IDE only supports Windows. Eclipse lets us run on Windows, OSX, and Linux. As of 2014, most of our developers have switched to using Linux and Eclipse. This is convenient even on Windows because we can create a free Linux Virtual Machine and copy it from one computer to another (presto! instant dev workstation). Another large benefit is that there are pre-built PowerPC toolchains for Linux, so we can set up the toolchain quickly and easily. OK, now to answer your questions: 1. Normal Visual Studio offers "post-build" options. If the DT IDE supports this feature, you could write a post-build script that would automate the process of modifying the makefile and recompiling the code. If not, I don't know of any other solution within Delta Tau's IDE. I can help you get started with Eclipse, but I can only show you how to setup and compile C-code. I don't know how to deal with motion programs or script PLCs in Eclipse (although I've toyed with the idea of writing an Eclipse plugin for syntax coloring and compilation of DT script). 2. For downloading compiled code to the Power PMAC, we ended up writing our own program to do this so we can store our code in a different location on the Power PMAC, download to multiple Power PMACs at the same time, etc. 3. I am personally willing to share my Eclipse notes, but I'm guessing Delta Tau doesn't want me to publish them here (if only because they have put quite a bit of effort into their own IDE). Also it may be confusing to those who are not familiar with the DT products. I will need to do some minor editing to remove some company-specific things from my Eclipse notes, but if you are still interested in Eclipse after reading this, send me an email (via my profile) and I'll get back to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shansen Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 smr99: For the benefit of anyone else reading this, I'll give a bit more context before answering your questions. First of all, my company has been using the Power PMAC primarily for non-motion applications. In other words, we have not been using the DT script motion programs at all. Secondly, we have written custom tools to let us download, upload, and backup our project files on the Power PMAC. For example, we are not using DT standard Cplcs, and instead have our own custom framework for creating and managing background or real-time tasks directly. We decided to use Eclipse several years ago for many reasons. Eclipse allows arbitrary project organization, it has GREAT syntax coloring, code auto-formatting, the ability to put revision information into our compiled code for revision tracking, refactoring support, etc ad infinitum. Another big problem for us is that the Delta Tau IDE only supports Windows. Eclipse lets us run on Windows, OSX, and Linux. As of 2014, most of our developers have switched to using Linux and Eclipse. This is convenient even on Windows because we can create a free Linux Virtual Machine and copy it from one computer to another (presto! instant dev workstation). Another large benefit is that there are pre-built PowerPC toolchains for Linux, so we can set up the toolchain quickly and easily. OK, now to answer your questions: 1. Normal Visual Studio offers "post-build" options. If the DT IDE supports this feature, you could write a post-build script that would automate the process of modifying the makefile and recompiling the code. If not, I don't know of any other solution within Delta Tau's IDE. I can help you get started with Eclipse, but I can only show you how to setup and compile C-code. I don't know how to deal with motion programs or script PLCs in Eclipse (although I've toyed with the idea of writing an Eclipse plugin for syntax coloring and compilation of DT script). 2. For downloading compiled code to the Power PMAC, we ended up writing our own program to do this so we can store our code in a different location on the Power PMAC, download to multiple Power PMACs at the same time, etc. 3. I am personally willing to share my Eclipse notes, but I'm guessing Delta Tau doesn't want me to publish them here (if only because they have put quite a bit of effort into their own IDE). Also it may be confusing to those who are not familiar with the DT products. I will need to do some minor editing to remove some company-specific things from my Eclipse notes, but if you are still interested in Eclipse after reading this, send me an email (via my profile) and I'll get back to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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