CW 10.3 feedback

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

CW 10.3 feedback

8,069 Views
CarlFST60L
Senior Contributor II

Hi All,

 

Before I start, my Inbox was recently deleted, so I lost all my Freescale contacts... yay....

 

Was not quite sure how to give feedback regarding the CW10.3 release, so I will just post my feedback here, please join in.

 

I am using MQX3.7, MCF52259EVB / DEMO / TWR type projects.

 

Compared to 10.2, it has some buttons, check box's and better error results, otherwise, exactly the same super slow debugging tool as 10.2

 

Here is what I have seen in the first 10 minutes of use:

- it takes 3 minutes to program a 512Kb project (MRAM and FLASH) from the time I hit debug to the time I hit run, absolutely not acceptable.

- the 'download task fail' dialog appears after each download even though it works perfect every time

- the download task errors I get every time are from the TTF files having premature EOF's... it doesnt fix them or allow you to fix this, but its nice to know every time I load it that it detected premature EOF's

- have to restart CW EVERY TIME before each download

 

In summary, all I want is a compile, download and debug, this product completely fails on 2 of these primary requirements...

 

If someone at freescale would like to webex my machine I am happy for you to see all this... Last I remeber you guys arnt allowed to actually look at real work computers... lol...

 

Labels (1)
65 Replies

1,455 Views
CarlFST60L
Senior Contributor II

Ok, so I spent two days porting all my code to an entirely new project in CW10.3, fresh build everything, re built all the lib's and things for MQX and these are the two outstanding major issues

tested with all Coldfire Multilink USB, Cylcone MQX USB and Cyclone MAX Ethernet, MQX3.8, WIN7 64, WIN7 32, WINXP x86, Computer is Xeon(R) E5450 @ 3Gz with 8G of 1Hz DDR3.

- You have to restart PE Micro after every debug session, still after all this time

- Even on this insainly fast computer it takes 25 seconds from when I hit debug to when I finally see the debug console show its programming, and a grand total of 2 minutes 30 to download my entire application (30 second delay, 2 minutes of programming, WOW), this is EXACTLY the same as CW10.2.

So the two most fundamental bugs from CW10.2 to development time are as bad as ever, super slow debugging, and restarting after every debug session.

I beg of you guys, please, sort this out.

0 Kudos

1,455 Views
CarlFST60L
Senior Contributor II

Can someone tell the guys at MQX that the Post-build steps Batch file reference MUST be update, it needs to reference MQX not the Project!

All MQX build projects are all WRONG (including RTCS etc), this is what they use by default

"${ProjDirPath}\..\..\bat\bsp_m52259evb.bat" "${MQX_ROOT_DIR}\lib\m52259evb.cw10\bsp"

This is what they must be

"${MQX_ROOT_DIR}\mqx\build\bat\bsp_m52259evb.bat" "${MQX_ROOT_DIR}\lib\m52259evb.cw10\bsp"

While you are at it, can you please, please make the default location of MQX the default location of MQX????

MQX location is not C:\ its C:\Freescale\Freescale MQX 3.8 (which is the definition of MQX_ROOT_DIR) in the project Linked Resources

This has been around for years now, it was partly updated, but its still wrong.. please just fix it.. please... its another few minutes on set up that I am sick of doing for no reason.

0 Kudos

1,455 Views
CarlFST60L
Senior Contributor II

I worked this one out, if you click the "copy project into workspace" box when importing MQX, it changes the reference tot he project, but it should always be fixed to MQX. Technically this is my mistake I suppose, but really, just direct like it to MQX so the project location does not change to the workspace so it 'always works'.

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
jorge_plascencia
NXP TechSupport
NXP TechSupport

Hi Carl,

I have attached a link on how to make your feedback go to right person Feedback Doc .

if you still have some questions that need help on please use this link to open an SR

Regards,

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

FWIW I am having all sorts of issue with 10.3 for Kinetis..

Does not seem to happen for V1 or V2, only Kinetis for the Freedom board and KwikStick.

Example:

On all Kinetis projects I get:

If I add a new source file to the project, it generates subdir.mk incorrectly.

(It seems that if I use PE this does not happen):

It puts (New file added is SYSTICK.C):

null./Sources/SYSTICK.d \

null"./Sources/SYSTICK.d" \

In the wrong place in subidr.mk, the project can't build.

Tech support  just said "Well we don't see it" and wanted to get me to try all this stuff, but guess what, I tired on two os's on two different boxes, exact same thing, I do have 10.1 and 10.2 installed on the boxes, but it is hard to believe that fsl QC would not test for that.

0 Kudos

1,455 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

The solution to this problem is that there is a bug where if the extension .C is capitalized, it causes this error.

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
tom_thompson
Contributor III

Jim:

When you add a file to the project that causes this problem, is it by dragging and dropping a file into the CodeWarrior Projects view?

Also, what version of Java are you using? (Launch Command Line, then type "java -version".)

---Tom

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

SR 1-939516281 is the ticket number.

I am using the latest build from the web site.

It is 120924,

As I said, I have installed on several unrelated PCs both XP and WIn7 with the same results.

XP was a VM, but I have used CW on VMs often and never observed a difference.

I am an experienced CW eclipse user, and have done this many times.

Also, it works with V1 and V2 projects.


0 Kudos

1,524 Views
luisgallegos
Contributor III

Hello Jim.

Did you get to fix this issue?

I got a similar error:

     mingw32-make: *** [Freedom_PWM.elf] Error 1

I am using the FRDM-KL25Z board. This error happened after I added some header and C files to the project, using File/New. I created them in the Sources folder of the project. I moved them to the Project_Headers and the same error showed up. I tried cleaning the project too, but it didn't help.

I don't know what the elf files are, exactly, but I believe I may be missing something in the header or C files. Maybe some include.

Thanks. I'll appreciate any help or comment.

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
BlackNight
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Hello Luis,

about .elf files, see Executable and Linkable Format - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for the error: have a look at the console view, which should provide more details.

Hope this helps,

Erich

1,524 Views
luisgallegos
Contributor III

Hello Erich.

Thanks for the response.

I checked out the console view. I was doing a double declaration of one of the variables. I just deleted one of them and everything worked.

Thanks for the tip.

Luis.

1,455 Views
adriangeiger
Contributor II

Hi Luis

I just had the same mingw32-make error as you described and found your posts here. Following the hint of Erich to analyse console outputs did not bring the solution immediately. But considering your report of a double variable declaration, I found a variable initialisation in a header file to be a problem. The actually good habit to always initialise variables must be properly used still...

I'm happy about my new finding and just wanted to share it.

cheers

Adrian

1,524 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

Tom,

Nice to hear from you...

No, I highlight the Sources folder in the project, do a "New"/ Source file.

Then when you do a build you get an error in the subdir.mk for that folder. I can fix it, but then of course if you do a clean it regenerated that file and the error comes back.

--Jim

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

Let me give the exact steps to reproduce, because I have tried now on 4 different, unrelated pcs and it happens exactly the same on every one of the:

Using 10.3 Beta  build 0924,Create a plain "Bareboard" C project for the KL25Z128. Select P&E bdm and Open SDA for debugging.

Clean and build the project.

Add a new file to the project using "New/Source FIle", does not need any code in it.

Clean and Build the project, you see and error in Problems, which is in subdir.mk

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
tom_thompson
Contributor III

OK, I duplicated your steps and I did not have anything go wrong. That doesn't mean you aren't having problems. We just need to figure out what's wrong with CodeWarrior for you.

First, I am using build 120817. Are you using the latest build from the Web site? I apologize if you have explained these details in any SRs earlier.

Also, could you try this? Build a project as you described, but don't add the file. Take an existing file, and drag and drop its icon into the Sources folder displayed by the CodeWarrior Projects view. Does that work, or produce the same problem?

Give me the SR you submitted the problem under earlier so that I can see what else you've tried.

---Tom

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
JimDon
Senior Contributor III

Here is another issue I am having with 10.3

Not sure what happens to get to this state, but my project (which can still only have one file as above) but I get these errors:

Description     Resource     Path     Location     Type
mingw32-make: *** [TESTDIO.elf] Error 1     TESTDIO                C/C++ Problem
cannot find -luart     TESTDIO                C/C++ Problem
cannot find -lrt     TESTDIO                C/C++ Problem

Then you can no longer build the project

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
CarlFST60L
Senior Contributor II

Hi,

I tried the SR a few times, but all I get is hours of work in 'test this, do that, try this tell me what happens when you do this, send me all your project (lol)', I just want a tool that works, that downloads first time every time in 10 seconds not 3 minutes. (Which I was promised was fixed on 10.3 by someone in charge).

I really cant afford to spend my day fixing problems or trying to find ways to make problems occur, I pay money for a product, it should work, simple... My bills dont get paid for testing and fault finding this product.

I have offered to have the testers use Webex to get in and see this entire list of faults first hand (as there is no way im sending my project to anyone), I can show the same problems on Win7 32, XP x86 anytime you like, but apparently its impossible for anyone inside Freescale to have access to a computer... Awesome support.

Quite frankly, for something I pay $2000 a year for, I am getting tired of dealing with this, I dont want to complain, I dont want to be negative, I just want to write code and produce products to make a living,

If you want to get serious and see an actual developer have actual problems that can be produced every single time, email me, and get yourself on a computer that doesnt block webex. I wont be spending any more time on this, word to be done, bills to pay...

1,524 Views
FridgeFreezer
Senior Contributor I

I second that rather weary post.

I don't know what's so hard about an IDE that Freescale ditched the old CodeWarrior, which now looks so simple, lightweight, reliable, and unobtrusive. It's a frickin' text editor with a hat on. Now we have this monstrosity which is bloated, slow, unreliable, and gets in the way of getting things done.

If it wasn't for the fact we had to "upgrade" our PC's / OS to Win 7/64 I'd still be using CW7.2

If any of our other tools was this much of a pain, we wouldn't be using them; if our oscilloscope was this flaky it would be in the skip, and no-one would be surprised if they went out of business.

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
FridgeFreezer
Senior Contributor I

Aside from the bugs I've found that FS have taken up (not fixed yet as far as I know, but they did take them up, in a "thanks, yeah it does doe that, have no tracking number or anything" kinda way), here's my list of annoyances from CW10.2, I'm willing to bet most of them are still there:

  • Compiler crashes, can't be killed, can't save project/changes while it's pending - have to hard reset the PC & lose work.
  • Debugger can't handle strings (was documented on the old forum, no idea where that's gone)
  • #defines ALWAYS justify far left
  • Auto-indenting is brain damaged, can't be configured to behave
  • Syntax highlighting is thrown off by tiny(errors))
  • Syntax highlighting can't distinguish things which don't actually #EXIST
  • Syntax highlighting will highlight non-existant functions()
  • Tooltips / hints will only work when you've already defined a function call correctly
  • Debugger doesn't know what the value of defines/constants is even though the IDE does when coding.
  • End / home keys do what they feel like
  • "Show affordance in hover on how to make it sticky : This option controls whether to show an affordance in the hover on how to make it sticky." Good, thanks for that, I'll be sure to hatstand purple donkey it Mr UI designer.
  • It's written in F***ING JAVA
  • Build errors / markers take (on average) TWO save/build cycles to clear
  • Three identical errors, once fixed, will still show as at least one error.
  • Debugger spawns instances, fails, doesn't cleanup and then won't re-launch (something's already running!) without CW being shutdown, debugger USB socket-cycled.
  • No option to ignore comments in search (CW7 could do this)
  • Multiple different search dialogs/results styles/methods, seem to give quite variable results.
  • No file/folder compare (CW7 had it)
  • Breakpoints get stuck, cannot be removed by clicking, appear multiple times
  • Breakpoints sometimes cannot be set at valid lines, get moved to invalid ones
  • IDE/Project preferences/settings window is the most sprawling, over-complicated, obfuscated thing I've seen and allows infinite indistinguishable ways to break everything without realising. Less is more, guys - there's only a few things anyone should really have to configure to write & debug a project. I can think of about 3 option boxes that are actually required: Which processor are you using, which language are you using, which debugger are you using? OK, go!


Also, I know it's not the place, but aren't these new forums the equivalent of Windows 8 - trying to be stylish/modern whilst making getting any actual work done much much harder? I'm spending more and more time on StackOverflow as that is fast and readable. You're dealing with engineers, we don't care how on-brand your website is if we CAN'T BL**DY FIND ANYTHING!!! This is the reason we don't use PIC in any of our projects and avoid Ti, because their websites suck and that costs development time & leads to bugs/errors because their documentation is poor.

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
BlackNight
NXP Employee
NXP Employee

Feedback is a gift :-), so thanks for it.

I cannot jump into everything, but here are some items which come to my mind:

>>No file/folder compare (CW7 had it)

Actually the one in Eclipse is much better in my view: http://mcuoneclipse.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/compare-and-merge-with-eclipse/

>> IDE/Project preferences/settings window is the most sprawling, over-complicated.

MCU10.3 comes with simplified perspectives (right, this is not about the settings, but in my view relevant):

http://blogs.freescale.com/2012/09/25/codewarrior-ide-v10-3-a-whole-new-perspective/

>>Debugger doesn't know what the value of defines/constants is even though the IDE does when coding.

Typically (and this is what I expect) is that the compiler resolves that a compilation time. And as the debugger is inside Eclipse, it has all the editor information anyway. At least this works for me? I have the defines colored properly while debugging, can jump to macros/etc. Maybe I'm seeing something different?

A lot of things are inherent in Eclipse. It is not perfect, and will never be. Some love it, some hate it, and some probably don't care. That does not mean that we cannot change Eclipse. As for myself: I care.

And again: thanks for the feedback appreciated.

Erich

0 Kudos

1,524 Views
FridgeFreezer
Senior Contributor I

Thanks fo responding Erich! It does customers good to know people are listening.

My copy of CW10.2 doesn't have the compare menu :smileysad: ho hum. Winmerge is pretty good for comparing (for example) current project folder with backup project folder without having to import the backup folder into CW.

Simplified perspectives look like a step in the right direction.

Re: The debugger knowing the values of things, here is what I'm seeing:

If I have some code like this:

header.h contains "#define VALUE (5)"

Then main.c includes the header file, then contains the code "foo = VALUE;"

When I hover the mouse over "VALUE" the tip pops up and tells me it's "(5)"

But if I'm debugging, and do the same thing (stop code at that line and hover over "VALUE") I get "VALUE = No value available"

Any chance they have fixed any of the other bugs?

Make #defines follow indent

CW10.2 - View strings as strings in debugger

CW10.2 compiler crashes & can't be killed

CW10 Including external files in .lcf, can't find file (linker includes all but the last byte of a f...

0 Kudos