Debugger selection on New Project Wizard?

[quevedo]

Hello,

I have started using KDS, with the idea on using it for my Basic Programming Lab classes at the University, when the release version is available. In this course, FRDM boards are not the aim, but the media for teaching programming and interface concepts. As the students are new to the world of programming, they need a tool that is easy to use.

I noticed that, in the New Project Wizard, there is no debugger interface selection. In CW10, during the Wizard setup, the user can choose what debugger interface he or she wants to use. IN KDE Beta, after the project is built, the user has to create manually a new debug connection, which is described in the Quick Start Guide. This will be an extra step for my students, which will have to learn on how to add a debug connection, which is not one of the goals for this course. If they have to manually setup debug connection, they will lose precious minutes of a 2-hour class, where sometimes they create up to 3 different projects.

All this intro is just to explain the context for my question: will the New Project Wizard, on KDE release version, include this step of selecting the debugger connection? If the development guys have not considered it yet, think of it as a suggestion, because it would make the project creation a little faster. Of course, you could add an option of the type: "I will decide it later".

[BlackNight · Accepted solution]

The creation of launch configuration has been explictily not been added to the New Project Wizard. Simply we want to keep it open to any debug connection. So for example if you add USBDM to KDS (see Using USBDM with Kinetis Design Studio) or other open source connections, then they will not show up automatically in the wizard.

Instead, as creating a new launch configuration is just a few mouse clicks, it is up to the user to configure it like he wants it.

Moreover, as the launch configuration 'remembers' your settings, creating the second launch configuration is even simpler.

I understand that this is an extra step, however that extra step is important and important for students to understand. If it just 'magically' happens in the backgound, it will be hard for your students to deal with problems. And I think the steps are very basic and straightforward too:

1) select the project and go the the debug configurations

2) double click on the connection you want to create a new connection

3) specify the device (only needed the first time)

4) debug

I hope that makes sense?

[quevedo]

Hello Erich,

First of all it was a pleasure to meet you at the FTF, even if it was too quick due to the tight schedules.

You have a good point on teaching the students to setup a debug connection. My worry is that they would have to set it up for every new project they create, but since the launch config remembers the settings, the procedure will not take much extra time.

Anyway, I believe that the debug selection step could be implemented on the wizard, with an option to skip this step, which would allow the user to create any debug config. Students could skip the step to learn on how to setup their configs, and later they could use the wizard step. CW10 wizard has a step where I can decide if I want to use Processor Expert, and I explicitly prohibit my students to use it, because I want them to "brush the bits". But the option is there anyway, and I use PE in another lab course.

Cheers