Mar 00 Factory Floor
Volume Number: 16
Issue Number: 3
Column Tag: From the Factory Floor
CodeWarrior Update
by Richard Atwell
Codewarrior Release 5.3 Update
Just before the Christmas holiday, Metrowerks shipped its CodeWarrior Release 5.3
Update. We shipped two versions: one that contained pre-built libraries (37MB) and
one that didn't (25MB) in order to make the download as small as possible for those
with slower connections to the Internet.
We also updated some of our documentation (6MB) but only in PDF format. The update
includes the C Compilers Reference, IDE User Guide, MSL C Reference, QuickStart
Professional and Targeting Mac OS manuals. The manuals have been updated largely to
document the AltiVec support in the tools.
There is also an update to the MetroNub for Java debugger plug-in. This plug-in
previously shipped on the CodeWarrior Release 5 Reference CD in the pre-release
folder. The MetroNub plug-in that the installer places in your Release 5 Metrowerks
CodeWarrior folder is not intended to debug Java anymore. Instead, there is a separate
plug-in called the SunJavaPlugin for Java targets. The release notes with the update
say:
The only
feature that the
old
Metronub/Java
debugger plug-in
provides that this
new plug-in
doesn't is the
ability to debug
already running
Java code without
launching the
application/applet
that uses it from
CodeWarrior. In
other words, with
the new Sun Java
debugger plug-in,
all Java debugging
must originate
from the IDE.
Attaching to an
already running
VM process is not
supported.
If you don't require this support there's no need to install this extra update. Visit
http://www.metrowerks.com/download/ for all the latest tools. The Release 5.3
Update is planned to be the last update before CodeWarrior Release 6.
IDE 4.0.4
With the introduction of the IDE 4.0.4 you may have noticed that there are several new
plug-ins in the CodeWarrior Plugins:Debugger: folder. These are new symbolics
plug-ins and each one contains target-level symbolics support that was previously
included in the IDE application itself. Of interest to Mac developers are the
SymSymbolics and JavaSymbolics plug-ins.
We've made these changes so development changes to one target don't adversely effect
other targets. We hope this will keep the integrated debugger working for the Mac as
we make required changes for the other targets that we support.
In addition to these structural changes, the debugger settings target preferences panel
has changed in the latest IDE.
Figure 1.new Debugger Settings Panel.
When you open your existing projects you'll get a dialog confirmation that the project
needs to be updated to the new settings. When you give the OK, each target will be
updated and you'll see a project message such as:
The data for
the "Debugger
Settings" settings
panel in target
"PPC Debug
MacOS Toolbox" of
project
"MyProject.mcp
has been updated
to the latest
version.
The two new options that require updating are Stop at temp breakpoint at application
launch and Cache symbolics between runs.
Instead of the old "stop at main" debugger global settings preference, we now allow a
target-specific preference to let the debugger stop at the "main" as before (default
behavior) or at a user specified symbol.
Simply enter a function name that must be located in the symbolics (main, __start,
NewBall) and the debugger will launch your program and stop at this function instead
of a hard coded symbol name. This is especially useful because it allows you to start a
debugging session and execute all the way until you reach a location such as the
function you are currently debugging, then halt.
Caching symbolics between runs is what the integrated debugger always used to do. Our
debugger used to keep symbolics loaded until a new build was created or the project
was closed. With our MPW command line tools this posed a problem if the user built
them, debugged, and then attempted to build with them again without closing the
project: the tools could not write some of the output files since they were still being
used by the debugger.
With this option off, symbolics are discarded between runs, which frees the symbolic
files so that external programs may modify them. The further benefit is that if you
were to kill and restart your program, symbolics would be discarded and reloaded.
That could take some time if the SYM file is large.
Compilers And MSL
We shipped MSL 5.2 and new 2.3.2 compilers with the Release 5.3 Update. There are
many new language features available in the front end and improvements to the
PowerPC backend.
Here are some front-end highlights:
• Support for the ISO C++ section 16.8 value for the predefined macro
"__cplusplus". This is set to "199711L" to indicate conformance with the ISO
C++ specification.
• Support for #pragma fullpath_prepdump on|off|reset (default off). This
option can be used to show the full path of any included files in the comments
in a preprocessor dump. When turned off, only the filename portion of the
path is shown.
• Support for #pragma line_prepdump on|off|reset (default off). This
option can be used to uncomment the "#line ..." directives in a preprocessor
dump. This option it will also preserve the vertical line spacing by inserting
empty lines.
• "#pragma gcc_extensions on" now allows automatic struct/array
variables to be initialized with non-const values, such as function
parameters. (non-ANSI C)
• #pragma warn_no_side_effect on|off| reset (default: off)
• #pragma warn_resultnotused on|off|reset (default: off)
• __option() will now return 'false' instead of an error message if
is an unknown option/#pragma.
• #pragma opt_strength_reduction_strict on|off|reset (default: off). This
option can be used to disable strength reduction optimizations that could be
unsafe because the induction variable has an unsigned type smaller than the
pointer type. Previously, this option was controlled solely by the ANSI strict
setting.
Some PowerPC backend highlights:
• Support #pragma function_align 4|8|16|32|64|128|reset allows
specifying of the alignment of a function.
• AltiVec constants are now pooled.
• #pragma altivec_vrsave allon is now supported. It sets VRsave assuming
that all AltiVec registers are in use, best used with "#pragma altivec_vrsave
off" so only the parent routine updates the vrsave register.
• Added "machine 7400" directive to inline assembler
Mac OS Support
We're continually updating the support folders new that we ship CDs less often. With
the Release 5.2 Update we made several changes to MacOS Support:
• Updated MacHeaders so they can be compiles with ANSI Strict ON. This
usually means removing the // C++ style comments and replacing them with
the /* C style comments.
• Added a stub library for the PLStringFuncs that exist within StdCLib.
• Added some common MPW files that are not part of Universal Interfaces.
• Replaced fp.h with the modified Pro4 version that fixed problems when
including cmath and fp.h in the wrong order.
As always, we welcome your feedback on any subject. Contact us through our
newsgroup or send us email directly using the addresses below.
• Technical Support: cw_support@metrowerks.com
• Report Bugs: cw_bug@metrowerks.com
• Suggestions: cw_suggestion@metrowerks.com
______________________________
Richard Alexander David Atwell started at Metrowerks in 1998 when he signed
up to join the ranks of those who use CodeWarrior to write CodeWarrior. If you are
interested in doing the same you can reach him at ratwell@metrowerks.com.