The recent announcement from Purdue that they have developed an alternative way of writing software for the cortex has generated much interest and excitement. I’m curious to understand what the underlying reason is for this excitement, is it simply the fact that it’s using the eclipse IDE? Or perhaps the thought of getting a development system for free?
Last year I posted a thread that explained how to create a user library using eclipse that could be then linked with an EasyC project.
https://vexforum.com/t/advanced-easyc-programming-create-a-user-library/21938/1
I had posted that following the creation of a document explaining how to use eclipse for all development by linking against the EasyC runtime library. That document was never released publicly for the simple reason that it would allow free development using the EasyC startup code and runtime library without a license for EasyC.
The compiler used by EasyC is gcc (Sourcery G++lite for ARM), these are free tools. It is the same compiler that’s now being distributed with the arduino IDE (1.5.2) for compiling sketches for the new ARM based arduino products. There is a good chance that it’s the same compiler that Purdue is using as well. The EasyC include files do not contain any form of copyright or EULA, so it could be argued that these are also free to use. The runtime library is a grey area, it also does not contain any form of embedded copyright and I find no EULA or any other license information in any of the EasyC program folder structure. Common sense tells us that it’s wrong to use the Intelitek intellectual property without paying for a license, I did not release my instructions on using eclipse to remove the temptation to have free development, however, if users are so excited by the possibility of using eclipse perhaps I should.
So back to my original question.
Is the excitement with the Purdue announcement due to being able to use eclipse with all of it’s included functionality?
Is it based on the potential performance increase?
Is it the possibility of free development tools?
Or is it something else?