Recommendations for a C compiler for the MC9S08?

I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
Freescale line of 9S08 micros, specifically I have my eye on the
MC9S08AW part.  Does anyone have any definite recommendations on good
C compilers for those parts?  Any compiler you would recommend staying
away from?  Thanks.

Lou

Mr. C wrote:
> I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
> Freescale line of 9S08 micros, specifically I have my eye on the
> MC9S08AW part.  Does anyone have any definite recommendations on good
> C compilers for those parts?  Any compiler you would recommend staying
> away from?  Thanks.

Cosmic C is OK, IAR is not bad either.

Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

"Mr. C" <fakeemail@hotmail.com> wrote in message 
news:fqfes2l5ogesrthh681uudh8gd4q8m3vu7@4ax.com...
>I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
> Freescale line of 9S08 micros, specifically I have my eye on the
> MC9S08AW part.  Does anyone have any definite recommendations on good
> C compilers for those parts?  Any compiler you would recommend staying
> away from?  Thanks.

Cosmic is pretty good.

We've used the Cosmic development tools for the CPU08.  There have been one 
or two instances where I've looked at the assembly-language generated by the 
compiler and observed it could be optimized slightly (but who can't say that 
about any microcontroller compiler?) ... but one thing I have to say about 
Cosmic is that we have encountered no bugs.  The compiler and other 
development tools have always been logically correct.

I give Cosmic a solid B+ for compiler optimization and a solid A of A+ for 
correctness of the compiler.
-- 
David T. Ashley              (dta@e3ft.com)
http://www.e3ft.com          (Consulting Home Page)
http://www.dtashley.com      (Personal Home Page)
http://gpl.e3ft.com          (GPL Publications and Projects) 

David T. Ashley wrote:


>>I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
>>Freescale line of 9S08 micros,

> 
> Cosmic is pretty good.
> 

Agreed. It is pretty good, simple and convenient.


> We've used the Cosmic development tools for the CPU08.  There have been one 
> or two instances where I've looked at the assembly-language generated by the 
> compiler and observed it could be optimized slightly (but who can't say that 
> about any microcontroller compiler?) ... but one thing I have to say about 
> Cosmic is that we have encountered no bugs.  The compiler and other 
> development tools have always been logically correct.

I can't say Cosmic is without the drawbacks:

1. Cosmic IDE sucks.
2. Cosmic does have bugs, although not too many. I have burned a couple 
of times. Once it was with the float point library, the other was with 
the C syntax mistake that was unnoticed by compiler.
3. Many library functions are not reentrant.

> I give Cosmic a solid B+ for compiler optimization and a solid A of A+ for 
> correctness of the compiler.

Agreed.

Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

>> ... but one thing I have to say about 
>> Cosmic is that we have encountered no bugs.  The compiler and other 
>> development tools have always been logically correct.

I used to use the Whitesmiths/Cosmic C compiler many years ago for
HC11 development and I generally liked it.

>I can't say Cosmic is without the drawbacks:
>
>1. Cosmic IDE sucks.

No problem for me. To their credit, the compiler also runs in a
command line mode which is likely they way I will use it from my
editor.  I usually HATE IDE's and really, really like my editor.

>2. Cosmic does have bugs, although not too many. I have burned a couple 
>of times. Once it was with the float point library, the other was with 
>the C syntax mistake that was unnoticed by compiler.

I wonder how responsive they are to fixing bugs.  I know the Rowley
Comipler I use for the MSP430 has nice free customer support that is
usually fast and accurate.  The only weird thing I saw with the older
Cosmic Compiler is that it would crash on compilation and if I simply
added a few spaces in the source code, it would not crash.  It was
really a strange problem since sometimes I needed to delete spaces.

>3. Many library functions are not reentrant.

No problem, I generally do not write code that will cause that to
happen (single thread, no library functions used in ISRs, etc.)

>Agreed.

Thanks for all your input.  I did go to their web site and the only
thing I thought was weird was they did not seem to mention how much
their stuff costs.

Lou

Mr. C wrote:

>>2. Cosmic does have bugs, although not too many.
> I wonder how responsive they are to fixing bugs.

Not very responsive.
The bug that I found was with the floor() function. I send them an 
example. As far as I know, the bug is still there.

> Thanks for all your input.  I did go to their web site and the only
> thing I thought was weird was they did not seem to mention how much
> their stuff costs.

The policy of Cosmic is to match the price of IAR and Metrowerks :)
So you'd better check the competitor prices first.

Vladimir Vassilevsky

DSP and Mixed Signal Design Consultant

http://www.abvolt.com

On Feb 5, 9:32 am, Mr. C <fakeem...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
> Freescale line of 9S08 micros, specifically I have my eye on the
> MC9S08AW part.  Does anyone have any definite recommendations on good
> C compilers for those parts?  Any compiler you would recommend staying
> away from?  Thanks.

Bytecraft seems to generate the tightest 8-bit code for Freescale.

Vladimir Vassilevsky wrote:

>>>2. Cosmic does have bugs, although not too many.
>> I wonder how responsive they are to fixing bugs.
>
>Not very responsive.
>The bug that I found was with the floor() function. I send them an 
>example. As far as I know, the bug is still there.

The bugs I reported were corrected rather fast or at least I got a
workaround for the time to the next release.

Oliver
-- 
Oliver Betz, Muenchen (oliverbetz.de)

Vladimir Vassilevsky wrote:

>> I am just starting to look around at available C compilers for the
>> Freescale line of 9S08 micros, specifically I have my eye on the
>> MC9S08AW part.  Does anyone have any definite recommendations on good
>> C compilers for those parts?  Any compiler you would recommend staying
>> away from?  Thanks.
> 
> Cosmic C is OK, IAR is not bad either.

CodeWarrior is good and also free of charge for up to 16K.

-- 
WBR, Yuriy.
"Liberalism is a mental disorder"