Processor Expert Pain

[WayneHowell]

Hi,

I'm interested in any feedback from people that have used PE in anger.

I'm in a state of some confusion about it's purpose and whether it is actually useful ...

I've spent the last week going through major pain with license keys. I can see from a search of this forum that I'm not alone int this.

The main license key problem was related to PE and getting all its functions working. I'm working with the S12 part with the ethernet port.

I was seriously considering parting with several thousand pounds for the fully fledged license ...

My logic is that PE can be used as a very cool way to build components just as we do in a RAD package such as Borland C++Builder.

This was all looking good until I started actually using it. The ethernet 'bean' (which requires the expensive license) is full of bugs. In actual fact, it simply doesn't work. Now it is fair to say that it only wasted a few hours of my life to fix the show stoppers. But if I'm paying real money for a library tool then I expect the code to work out of the box.

In addition to this, the example project for PE on the same part is also flawed.

I'm currently planning to save my money, dump PE and revert to hand coding a few useful libraries of my own.

I'd be very interested to hear if anyone has similar or indeed different experiences.

Finall, can I ask the powers that be to sort out your licensing! We're not criminals, we're just trying to go our job and use your software ...

Cheers

Wayne

[ProcessorExpert]

Dear Customer,

Please Bean Wizard's versions description in help below:

Basic version (included in CodeWarrior)
The basic version of Bean Wizard is designed for the creation of software beans, i.e. hardware independent. These beans are written in high-level programming languages (ANSI C, ...). You can create pure software beans (associated to other software modules), such as bean for computing Fast Fourier Transform, or you may create software beans which are indirectly dealing with hardware, using inheritance. You can, for example, create a bean for controlling EEPROM by inheriting methods and events from the input/output hardware beans and using them in your code. As input/output beans are written for all processors of Processor Expert's database, your EEPROM control bean is hardware independent and you may use it with each processor of Processor Expert's database.

In this version you cannot change existing hardware beans (for example input/output beans, timers, etc). You may only inherit from them by creating templates and interfaces.

Professional version
The Professional version of Bean Wizard is designed for creating software and hardware beans.

The Professional version also requires closer cooperation between customer and our company. The creating and modification of HW beans also require knowledge of e.g. internal macro-language, symbols from Processor Expert's database etc. The release of Professional version for public using isn't planned to future for these reasons. If you need to modify HW bean, the best way is to send us all requirements and we will make changes instead of you.

The "freeze" option isn't a final resolution, it is only "quick workaround" how to resolve a customer's problem before fixing or updating in generated code (if it is possible).

Answers:

1) Source code of HW beans is'nt public

2) You can load the bean to Bean Wizard, but all properties are read-only, some ones invisible.

3)-4) You can modify generated code only if "freeze" re-generation by Processor Expert

Best Regards,

Jan Pospisilik

Processor Expert Support

[ProcessorExpert]

Dear Customer,

Unfortunately, for a modification of hardware(HW) beans as the Ethernet bean it is necessary a knowledge of Processor Expert's internal technology. The basic version of Bean Wizard tool included in proffessional edition of CodeWarrior doesn't provide HW beans creation and modification and therefore the Ethernet bean modification isn't possible by user.

You can generate code for the Ethernet bean by Processor Expert, "freeze" code generation for the bean and modify its driver code manually (right mouse button click on bean, Code Generation -> Don't Write Generated Bean Modules menu item). After "freezing" setting your changes into driver will not re-write after code re-generation.

I hope this help you.

Best Regards,

Jan Pospisilik

Processor Expert Support

[WayneHowell]

Hi,

If I understand correctly, the answer is no!

Is there any plan to release a full editor for beans so that the PE can be used with customer created code?

I don't see the 'freeze' option as very usefull. If I do that, I may as well not use PE and simply write my code as a library..

Cheers

Wayne

[ProcessorExpert]

Dear Customer,

modifications of HW beans would be very difficult for the users. The HW beans are quite complex and the resulting code may strongly depend on the bean configuration. (You can try for example to generate code for SCI with and without interrupt service). The resulting code also may depend on the selected derivative (from HCS12 family we currently support more than 50 derivatives).

If you describe your problem, we can create and send you patch fixing the bug.

I agree that 'freeze' option is temporary solution (this can help you until you receive the patch).

Best regards

Marek Trmac

Processor Expert Development team

[ProcessorExpert]

Dear Customer,

Thank you for your interest in Processor Expert. We apologize for problem with the Ethernet bean, but we only encapsulated source code for this bean from third-party and therefore we haven't full control of possible bugs or limitations. Please send us a project or detail description of your problems or bugs and we will try to help you quickly.

Best Regards,

Jan Pospisilik, Processor Expert Support

[WayneHowell]

Hi there,

I've just completed rewriting a cut down version of the stack.

I now have that coesting with PE using processor and interrupt beans.

What I would like to do is roll my new stack back into a bean so I can use PE for a range of projects.

So my questions are:

1) Is the source code for the ethernet bean available?

2) Can I effectively load this into the bean editor?

3) Strip out the code you encapsulated and replace it with mine?

4) Recompile as a custom bean.

If the answer to the above is yes, can you also clarify which version of Code Warrior I need from a license point of view.

Thanks

Wayne.

[mtrmac]

Dear Customer,

could you please describe the bugs in the bean/driver in the way, so we can understand and fix them? From the description above we cannot find any problem or bug.

Thank you

Best regards

Marek Trmac

Processor Expert development team

[WayneHowell]

Hi,

When I have finished the re-write, I'll post a full list of all the bugs in the ethernet bean.

In the mean time, can you answer my questions above?

Thanks

Wayne