MPLAB C18 v3.00

MPLAB C18 v3.00 is posted and available here.

Important Changes to MPLAB C18 v3.00:
MPLAB C18 v3.00 and later COFF file formats will not be compatible with versions of MPLINK prior to v4.00 or versions of the MPLAB IDE prior to v7.21.
New Features:
- Improvements have been made to the COFF file format that will provide the following capabilities from MPLAB IDE v7.21 and later:

• automatic detection of IEEE vs. Microchip floating-point format
  
• automatic detection of variables of "short long" type
  
• automatic detection of pointers to ROM vs. pointers to RAM

- MPLAB IDE v7.22 and later will also distinguish between pointers to near ROM and pointers to far ROM.
- Automatic ISR context saving is implemented.
- Functions called only by an ISR can share the same temporary data section with that ISR (#pragma tmpdata).
- “MPLAB C18 C Compiler Getting Started” manual rewritten.
- See the associated README file for other changes, fixes, and device support..

I installed MPLAB v7.21 over the old v7.20.
After that I installed the C18 v3.00 Upgrade.
I opened an old project and rebuilded it completely.
The error I received:

MPLINK 4.00, Linker
Copyright (c) 2005 Microchip Technology Inc.
Error - Coff file format for 'C:\Microchip\mcc18\Projects\ctest1\AsmCore.o' is out of date.
Errors : 1

The file which makes the problem is an assembler file. So it seems that the assembler I'm using doesn't produce objects, that are readable for the new linker.

You have to use the mpasmwin.exe that came with the C18 v3.00. The coff file format changed in C18 v3.00, so any object files generated with older MPASM are not compatible with the new linker.

Go to the Project/Set Language Tool Locations ... menu and change all MPASM and MPLINK tools (both under C18 Toolsuite and MPASM Toolsuite) to the tools that came with C18 (C:\mcc18\mpasm...)

I copied mpasmwin.exe v5.0 from ...\mcc18 to the old location in order not to have to change tool locations. And now everything works fine.

ORIGINAL: jw0502

I copied mpasmwin.exe v5.0 from ...\mcc18 to the old location in order not to have to change tool locations. And now everything works fine.

Ummmm. Ok, this will work. But now you have a frankenstein monster in the MPASM tools. IMHO, it's better to use the project toolsuite location fields.

I'm having some inexplicable problems since upgrading to 3.00, can anyone point me to the download for the 2.44 upgrade? I want to try and narrow down where this problem is coming from.

-Jason

Can you explain some of the problems?

Since upgrading to 3.00 my UART code seems faulty. Every other aspect of the code seems to be working properly. the problem is, I cannot try to debug it. With the ICD2 attached the problem will occur, but as soon as I step through the code, or pause and continue, the problem goes away.

It seems that some data is being missed on receive or transmit over the UART, but like I said I cannot debug it.

It is code that was working fine before, but now I have spent an entire day trying to debug this problem and really just need to get it back to where it was. I do have the upgrade files for 2.30.1, but that does not support the 18F2420 and 18F2410, which I am using.

Hm. I am using the v3.00 released version with UART. I'm not using ICD2 to on-chip debug, only in programmer mode.

Did you saved as your project with the same name?

Opening the project, "saving as" it, closing the IDE, and reopening the project made no difference at all, and I'm not quite certian why it should have, unless there is a fairly serious bug/undocumented feature of the IDE.

I managed to find the 2.40 upgrade installation and all of my problems magically went away.

I do not have time to debug the problem with the 3.00 compiler further, but it appeared that either my ISR was constant being hit, tying up the processor, or Interrupts were either not properly set, or somehow missed.

In a fit of desperation, I moved the ISR code into the main loop and the reliability of the UART was "better" but still not right.

-Jason

Well, I must be very lucky. I am using v3.00 since the beta 1 version, and things are running smoothly here. I have a loaded interrupt handler, double USARTs running at 230.4Kbaud and external memory.

The 'save as' routine used to cure some toolset defaultings and toolset locations in the past, when changing versions of the IDE. Since I keep several versions of the IDE installed at the same time, I always do this to make sure all my toolset targets are at the right place.

When you discover what is it, give a feedback.

Maybe it should be interesting to make clear to all new users that the present MPLAB IDE 7.21 do not include the correct revison v4.00 for MPLINK, so user has to used MPLINK from MPLAB C18 3.00.

On the other hand, it seems that MPLAB IDE v7.22 is not available on Web site right now?

ORIGINAL: gelatournix

Maybe it should be interesting to make clear to all new users that the present MPLAB IDE 7.21 do not include the correct revison v4.00 for MPLINK, so user has to used MPLINK from MPLAB C18 3.00.

On the other hand, it seems that MPLAB IDE v7.22 is not available on Web site right now?

If you are working with MPASM in v7.21, the linker is the 'correct revision'. But C18 v3.00 changed the COFF file structure, and requires a new version of the linker. When you install the C18 toolsuite it makes both linkers available, so you can use the 'older' COFF format linker to assemble MPASM projects that use .o and .lib compiled files in the previous COFF format. Any C18 v3.xx project will require the linker that is supplied with the v3.xx toolsuite, and mixed projects that include v3.00 will need recompilation of the object and library files.

Jason,

C18 3.00 adds automatic ISR context saving. This feature is probably affecting your ISR latency. If you find that the the compiler is auto saving unnecessary sections or locations, you can use the new nosave= clause to reduce the ISR latency.

- JasonK

P.S. In the future, please start a new message thread rather than asking a question in the new-version announcement thread.

//Look below simple code, it can not pass compile with C18 V3.0, but can pass with V2.44, V2.43, V2.40

#define fnc00(x,y) fnc01(x,y)

#define fnc01(x,y) fnc02(x,y)

#define fnc02(x,y) x=x+y

void main()
{
int a=0,b=0;
fnc02(a,b);
}
//The compiler error is Syntax Error
//If use #error fnc02(a,b) reaplace fnc02(a,b) then the result is:Error [1099] =+ ;
// so the the variable all disppeared, WHY 3.0 Version take this result?
//It is IMPROVEMENT or a BUG?

I have a similar problem since I upgraded from C18 V3.00 to V3.01.
The ZigBEe Stack DEBUG_OUT Macro produces a syntax error:

 #if defined(ENABLE_DEBUG)
 
     #if !defined(WIN32)
         #define DEBUG_OUT(s)                    \
         {                                       \
             static ROM char * const str = s;    \
             ConsolePutROMString(str);           \
         }
     #else
         #define DEBUG_OUT(s)            ConsolePutROMString(s)
     #endif
 

It is called in the main routine as follows:

DEBUG_OUT("Testint 1,2,3...\r\n");

I changed nothing in the source code, I only upgraded the C18 Compiler and now get that [:@] Syntax Error *grr*

Last night, I installed a student version of C18 and MPLAB 7.30

The bugs I found (for 1 min workout) for MPLAB 7.30:

It broke the path for PICC18. The INCLUDE path pointed to the LIB path.

Hi, I'm Alejandro Posada, and I'm having troubles with the MPLAB C18 compiler, there is a syntax error in the code and I don't see any error on the code.
the part of the code with the error is:
if((PMENU == PRESIONADO) && (BPMENU_ANT == SUELTO))
{
BPMENU_ANT = PRESIONADO;
BPMENU = ACTIVE;
BPulsadores = 1;
}
else if(PMENU == SUELTO)
{
BPMENU_ANT = SUELTO;
BPMENU = INACTIVE;
}
else if ((PMENU == PRESIONADO)&&(BPMENU_ANT == PRESIONADO))
{
BPMENU = INACTIVE;
}


does anyone can help me with this???

Hi,
What are the names in the code? MACRO refs?

Cheers

Artic

The names in the code are symbolic definitions
Like, Pmenu, is an input pin of the pic18f458, and BPMENU is a flag, that I use To Know if the input was in a high level, and Suelto = 0 Logic.

The problem is that, when I make all the project, an error occur on the line where the else if instruction is present and I don know why, and if I change this sentence and replace it with
If( )
{
}
else
{
if( )
}
and the error occurs again in the line where the else is placed.

if you know something about it, It would be really helpful for me.

tahnks and pardon me bacause of my bad writing.