LANGUAGE TOOLSUITES

5.2 LANGUAGE TOOLSUITES

MPLAB IDE supports many language toolsuites. Integrated into MPLAB IDE is the Microchip MPASM Toolsuite, but many others can be used, including the Microchip C17, C18 and C30 Toolsuites, as well as language tools from HI-TECH, IAR, CCS, microEngineering Labs and Byte Craft. These are integrated into MPLAB IDE in two ways: using ”plug ins” designed by the manufacturer, and by older style “.MTC” files that can be customized for any language toolsuite.

Language Suite Plug-Ins Vendors of language tools can write a “plug-in” that can be installed into MPLAB IDE

to provide custom dialogs to access the various tool build options. This is the preferred method of support.

.MTC File Interface

A language tool can be integrated in a generic manner using a special file with the extension .mtc. These files are then integrated into a dialog to provide check box access to the various build options of the language tool. Using these files, most of the features of the language toolsuite can be controlled, but all may not be available.

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5.2.1 Selecting the Language Toolsuite

Once a workspace is opened, a toolsuite can be selected from Project>Select Language Toolsuite. In some cases, MPLAB IDE will know where the various executables for the toolsuite are located, but sometimes these will need to be set manually before MPLAB IDE can use the tools.

FIGURE 5-1:

SELECTING A TOOLSUITE

If the selected toolsuite has red X’s to the left of the toolsuite components, that means that MPLAB IDE does not know where the executables are. You will have to enter the full path and executable name by typing it in or browsing to the proper executable.

5.2.2 Locating Microchip Language Toolsuites

Microchip toolsuites and their locations are described below. Microchip MPASM Toolsuite

This toolsuite includes the language tools MPASM assembler, MPLINK object linker and MPLIB object librarian. The executables for these files are mpasmwin.exe, mplink.exe and mplib.exe and are located in the mchip_tools subdirectory of the main MPLAB IDE installation directory.For more information on these tools, see Microchip PICmicro Language Tools.

Microchip C17 Toolsuite (Obsolete Product) This toolsuite includes all the language tools from the Microchip MPASM Toolsuite as

well as the MPLAB C17 C compiler. MPLAB C17 is a separate installation from MPLAB IDE. The executable for MPLAB C17 is mcc.exe and is installed in c:\mcc\bin by default.For more information on these tools, see Microchip PICmicro Language Tools.

Microchip C18 Toolsuite This toolsuite includes all the language tools from the Microchip MPASM Toolsuite as

well as the MPLAB C18 C compiler. MPLAB C18 is a separate installation from MPLAB IDE. The executable for MPLAB C18 is mcc18.exe and is installed in c:\mcc18\bin by default. For more information on these tools, see Microchip PICmicro Language Tools.

Microchip ASM30 Toolsuite This toolsuite includes the language tools MPLAB ASM30 assembler, MPLAB LINK30

object linker and MPLAB LIB30 object librarian. The executables for these files are pic30-as.exe, pic30-ld.exe and pic30-ar.exe and are located in the dspic_tools\bin subdirectory of the main MPLAB IDE installation directory. For more information on these tools, see Microchip dsPIC Language Tools.

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Integrated Tools

Microchip C30 Toolsuite This toolsuite includes all the language tools from the Microchip ASM30 Toolsuite as

well as the MPLAB C30 C compiler. MPLAB C30 is a separate installation from MPLAB IDE. The executable for MPLAB C30 is pic30-gcc.exe and is installed in c:\pic30\bin by default. For more information on these tools, see Microchip dsPIC Language Tools.