AVR-Chat

On Sat, 22 Mar 2008 15:44:47 -0400, you wrote:

>
>
>While it is true that compiling C is more complex than compiling 
>assembly it is all hidden from the user so there's no real perceivable 
>difference. That's what it's about. I'm not sure what C development 
>experience you have first hand but getting the 'hello world' equivalent 
>to compile and load using WinAVR/Stdio is close to trivial. I really 
>don't see how it could be simpler. The order of magnitude gain in 
>productivity comes at almost no cost.

This is all about how well the environment has been designed, and can vary from trivial to
borderline impossible - I've seen dev environments at both ends of the spectrum.  

>An embedded platform is a TERRIBLE platform to learn a new language. 
>You'll never know why things aren't working, too many variables. 

That's what debuggers are for. Learning how to debug apps in this environment is an essential skill
you can only learn by doing. 

>You  need at least proficiency and preferably expertise in your programming 
>language before applying it to a restrictive platform like an AVR.

At a basic level, perhaps, although if you know any language of a similar type ( assember, Basic,
Pascal etc.),  transitioning to another isn't as big a step as moving from a PC type envoironment to
one where you need to have an intimate understanding of the underlying hardware. 

Certainly if you have no knowledge of programming in any comparable language, I'd totally agree that
a PC environment is a better place to learn, but once you have the hang of programming in general,
the constraints of embedded apps are more significant than differences between languages. 


>    Sander
>
>Mike Harrison wrote:
>>
>>
>> The comment was about the devtools, not the language. A C compile/link 
>> process is inevitably more
>> complex than an assemble one. Poor defaults/configs can make it a lot 
>> more complex than necessary.
>>
>> >I don't think that an embedded platform is the right choice for learning
>> >C. Learn C on a PC (Linux, windows, Mac, whatever) and then apply those
>> >skills to develop embedded apps
>>
>> NO NO NO!!!
>>
>> If you want to write for embedded, learn on that, preferably via 
>> assembler first so you understand
>> the hardware. PC programming allows far too many bad habits to develop.
>>
>>  
>
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