Developer Notes

These are random notes that may be useful for developers

AtmelStudio6 Setup (Importing TinyG or another project into Studio6)

Forward: I still prefer Studio 4 for development and simulation, but also compile in 6 to maintain compatibility and take advantage of the newer C compiler and libraries for major releases. The .hex file for 6 is in the Debug dir, the .hex from 4 is in the default dir.

The simplest way to import TinyG or some other existing project into Studio6 is to clone the github repository and use the solution and project files found in the /support directory. If for some reason these are not available or don't work (we don't always remember to update them with project changes) or for some reason you just want to generate them yourselves the following instructions should help.

These instructions are for importing an existing project such as tinyg into Atmel Studio6 solution/project in a way that's compatible with how we have organized the directories on github. Studio6 likes to set up virgin projects and is not really set up for importing existing projects; someone at Microsoft or Atmel never really exercised this use case, it seems. So I trip over project import in 6 every single time.

The directory structure we use is:

.../GitRepository/solution/project for example:

.../TinyG/firmware/tinyg

To get this do the following:

1. Create a git repository in the main directory (TinyG).

2. Open studio6 and create a new project. Parameters are:

• TinyG is a "GCC C Executable Project"
• The Name is "tinyg"
• The Location is the path for the git repository
• The Solution name is "firmware". Allow it to create a new solution and to create a directory for the solution

3. Select the processor - TinyG uses an xmega192a3. Kinen slaves usually use mega328p

4. Now move all the .c and .h files into the project directory (e.g. tinyg). If there's a collision with the main.c or PROJECT.c file then replace the project-generated file with the one you are moving in. If there's a collision with the .cproj file do not replace it, instead use the one that's already in the directory (the newer one).

5. Go to the Solution Explorer that should be in a right-hand nav box. Right click the orange project directory icon and select add / existing item. Select all the .c, .h and any other files in the main directory that are necessary for the compiler / linker. Don't bother to add .txt, .doc, .md, the .cproj file, any AVRstudio4 files, or anything else that you may have under git management but are not technically part of the compile/link process. You may have to go back multiple times to select as the file browser doesn;t work the way you think it should - at least not under VMware on OSX.

Now read this to add the files in project sub-directories. (Aside): If you have an exiting project with sub-directories (like tinyg) there is no straightforward way to add the files to the project and leave the directory structure intact. You can't just click on the directory to add the entire directory. If you try to add a new directory it won't let you because that name is already used. If you add the items as "existing items" then navigate and click them it moves the files into the parent directory.

Here's what you must do.

• Either move the sub-directory out of the path or rename it (e.g. xio_ORIG) to get it out of the way.
• Create a new directory off the parent directory with the name you want (e.g. xio).
• Move the files from the original directory into the new directory
• Go back to the nav, click on the newly created directory and select "add existing files". Add the files that are found in the newly populated sub-directory.

6. Now try to build it from the Build / Build Solution menu. If it doesn't build it's probably because you left out a file in the solution explorer.

Notes:

(1) It gets worse. If you mess up and do things wrong studio6 will remember your paths in "recents" and fail the next time you try to set something up because things aren't where it thinks they should be. You have to go to the File/Recent Projects and Solutions, try to open the old paths, then remove them when they can't be found (you must have deleted the directories beforehand)