KiCAD is a winner
Posted on
3rd Mar 2019
For many years, I was looking for a new PCB layout package. And from time to time I would try one based on somone else's recommendation. Invariably I was unimpressed and fell back on my old standby TraxMaker that I purchased back in the 90s. That too was a recommendation, but its chief advantage was that you could start using it right away import virtually any format netlist and start laying out. Its user interface was simple and followed most other conventions, and push a button at the end and get a set of gerber files ready to fab.
BASIC with inline assembly
Posted on
26th Feb 2019
We have always had rudimentary inline assembly support in ARM BASIC. When adding multitasking support we expanded that capability. Originally the keyword __ASM__(code) would compile that 16 bit code instruction into the BASIC program.
Now __ASM__(code) also supports 32 bit instructions, and _...
Tooltip hints added to the IDE
Posted on
20th Feb 2019
Tooltip or mouse over hints have been added to our IDEs. One of our users has been modifying our BASICtools IDE for his own use or way of working. One feature he added was tooltips, something we did not know was available in TclTk. Well we aren't too proud to be inspired (i.e. copy with permission). So we added that as well.
Monitoring a Home Heating system
Posted on
8th Feb 2019
Doing some analysis of my hydronics heating system.
Some benchmarks for ARM BASIC
Posted on
17th Jan 2019
Should have published some of this data long ago. But better late than never. I ran some very simple integer and floating point benchmarks on all the parts I could find that I have BASIC running on.
Yes, we just got a BASIC running on the Arduino Zero - SAMD21, and we are looking for beta testers, and gauging interest in adding this. We intend it to be a free download.
Multitasking in BASIC... Why not?
Posted on
12th Jan 2019
One of our super users, posed a question. He needed multi-tasking, and asked if it was possible. My first reaction was NO. So was my second reaction. I suggested using callbacks from interrupts, or using multiple processors or the LPC54102 dual CPU.
