68300

A friend is gearing up for a '376 project.  I've provided him with some
'332 hardware, a prebuilt gcc toolchain (from the rtems project), and some
basic config/startup code to get his feet wet while the '376 hardware makes
it to the proto stage.  I'm not sure what to recommend for debugging.  

Need source level debugging, preferably from elf format files generated by
a recent version of gcc.  Needs to run under XP.  Being able to use either
a P&E parallel port wiggler (I have at least one spare) or a Macraigor
OCDemon parallel port bdm debugger (I have several floating around) would
be ideal.  Cost is somewhat of an issue--a few hundred is doable, but more
than a thousand bucks is probably a stretch.

Some that we've considered:
	OCD Commander: runs with the wigglers, free, runs under windows.  Doesn't
do source level debugging.  I kind of like the bare metal feel, so this is
probably a good one to use to bring up new hardware, where you may not have
working writeable memory on CSBOOT.  No source level debug is a killer for
app development, however.

	GDB: I've not had luck getting gdb under windows to talk to a OCDemon.
Now that I've found my genuine P&E box, maybe it will work?  Price is
right, source level, and it should run under windows.  My biggest
(personal) gripe with gdb is that it's so primitive looking, with the
scrolling command line interface.  My buddy might not mind so much,
however.  (Insight always seemed rather clunky, but I was debugging ARM
over a serial link.  Is Eclipse workable for embedded dev yet?)

	Singlestep: I use it at work, so I'm very accustomed to it.  I've never
had much luck using it in more bare metal situations (such as running from
onchip ram only, or with blank flash on CSBOOT), but for general app dev
I'm pretty happy with it.  Plays nice under windows with the OCDemon and
P&E boxes.  It's not in the acceptable price range (yet), and I'm not a fan
of the subscription support policy.

	Ashware: my friend has purchased it, but I think it's going to be
returned.  It seems very 'opaque'--I can't tell what it's doing; is it
running a config script, downloading code, hung, or running?  I'll be nice
and not say any more.

	Vision(something):  I've got an old EST box somewhere at work, and I think
I've still got an install copy of the software.  I've not run it enough to
know how capable it is, and I have no idea what it costs these days.  WRS
owns it now, so I'm sure it's not cheap...  ;-)

What else is worth looking into?  What should he avoid?


thanks,
newell