GCBASIC documentation
GCBASIC Maintenance and Development

1

Obtain the MPASM *.INC or the AVR *.XML files to be used. These files determine the scope of registers and register bits.

2

For Microchip only. Place the source INC files in ..DAT\incfiles\OrgFiles.

Process the file using Preprocess.bat. This is an AWK text processor - you will need AWK.EXE in the executing folder.

This preprocessing will examine all the INC files in the ..DAT\incfiles\OrgFiles folder. The resulting files will be placed in the ..DAT\incfiles folder. The resulting files will have the 'BITS' section sorted in port priority - this priority ensures the bits are assigned in the target DAT in the same order every time.

3

Update the database of supported microcontrollers. This database contains the microcontroller configuration that GCBASIC requires as the core information for the DAT files.

The database is called chipdata.csv or avr_chipdata.csv for Microchip and AVR respectively. - These files are comma delimited. The first row of data specifies the field name - these field names control the chip conversion program, see later notes.

The database fields are controlled by the GCBASIC development team, and the specification of the database may change between releases to support new capabilities.

Database fields will have the suffix Variant, such as PWMTimerVariant and SMTClockSourceVariant, and are microcontroller-specific configuration settings to support the various microcontroller settings. The values of these variants are determined by examining the microcontroller datasheets, as this information is NOT specified in the source files. Variants are exposed in the user program with the prefix Chip. If the variant is called PWMTimerVariant, a constant called ChipPWMTimerVariant will be exposed in the user program.

4

Update the CriticalChanges.txt file, if required. The CriticalChanges.txt file contains changes to the INC file during processing that are corrections or additions to the source files.

The format of each line is filename, Append (new line) or Replace, find, replace.

Each line is comma delimited, and spaces are NOT critical. Essentially, the processing will find a partial line and replace or append the whole line.

example: p16lf1615.inc,R,OSCFIE EQU H'0007',OSFIE EQU H'0007' - so, when processing p16lf1615.inc, find the line OSCFIE EQU H'0007' and replace with OSFIE EQU H'0007'.

5

If required. This is not normally edited. Update the 18FDefaultASMConfig.txt to set the 18F configuration defaults.

6

Maintain the conversion program. The conversion program may require maintenance. The programs are written in FreeBASIC and therefore require compilation.

An example of maintenance is when a new variant field is required. The source program will need to be updated to support the new variant - simply edit the source, compile, and publish. Another example is the addition of a new interrupt - follow the same process to edit, compile, and publish.

7

Execute the program to convert the source files to the DAT files for Microchip or AVR. There are two programs, one for each architecture.

Executing the conversion program without a parameter will process ALL the entries in the database (the csv file); passing a single parameter to the conversion program will only convert that single microcontroller.

The conversion program will process as follows:

a) Read the database for the chip specifics.

b) If a .DEV file or .INFO file is not present, a routine called GuessDefaultConfig is invoked. This method sets the bit(s).

In all cases, the default mask is sometimes specified for a particular config option, and that is used for ASMConfig.

See the section below for the processing of a .DEV file.

c) For all microcontrollers, read the CriticalChanges.txt file and process it.

d) For 18F microcontrollers, read the 18FDefaultASMConfig.txt. This simply overwrites all options stated in 18FDefaultASMConfig.TXT and marks this in the output DAT file.

e) Create the output DAT file.

8

Test and publish the DAT file(s) to the distribution as required.