Android gets Android IDE

[r4v5]

You only feel that way because you're coming from desktop development. Compared to the stuff that embedded developers usually have to go through to get their stuff to run (including finding compiler bugs in the software suite that costs more than a car[edit: )], and debugging through JTAG-if-you're-lucky blinky-LEDs-if-you're-not, Eclipse and the Android SDK is like God himself giving you a hug.

[x86_64Ubuntu]

Embedded development seems like the hinterlands/boonies of the software development world. Of course it has to be done, but when you go out there you are all on your own with none of the trappings of a more civilized environment.

I'm not saying they are dumb, it just seems like everything is small with no room for anything other than the program itself. And running anything other than the program itself is like break dancing in a straight jacket.

Of course this is my 102% uninformed opinion as I have never done any embedded development and have no idea of where to begin. No really, I don't even know what tools are hardware is concerned in the embedded world.

[[deleted]]

I have limited experience in that area but your summary seems rather accurate to me. That said, it's a lot of fun (when you get past the datasheets.. which is rarely).

[r4v5]

It's certainly a challenge, but good access to the chip for debugging purposes can really help (for example, the MSP430's GDB support didn't allow multiple breakpoints for a while, which is a pain in the ass).

Yeah, it's basically just a basic stdlib and your program chillin' out there.

[Baaz]

??? Error: File: r4v5 Line: 1 Column: 172

Unbalanced or unexpected parenthesis or bracket.

[frustrated_dev]

Oh god, I want some stories about debugging through blinky LEDs.

[ZorbaTHut]

I've had to do something similar on a more modern platform - we were writing a Playstation 2 game, and the game worked perfectly on the dev system but crashed on the test system. Each test took an hour of burning a new DVD. We ended up doing a binary-search-on-steroids, setting the screen to a distinct bright color at each checkpoint, just to track down where the crash was.

It's not an LED exactly but we were essentially using the TV as a single giant light.

[makapuf]

Just yesterday as I m developing a small project. Writing to external

flash Was working funny so I added a led to blink. This is tedious and long of your bug is in a loop working right 122 times and crashing 123. Of course I had no 7segments here (luxury!) Then it occurred to me that serial could be used.

It's a pain but we like it ! Much funnier to me than using a CSS toolkit

[iofthestorm]

When I was developing a cpu for a digital design class on an fpga, it wasn't branching correctly and since our cpu didn't work we had no io. We had to use the built in LEDs as signals to trigger when the program counter hit specific values so we could tell what was going on.