Eclipse GSOC Projects

[Alan Cudmore]

Here is my take on the Eclipse integration and configuration GUI  
projects:

Eclipse Integration can include a lot of sub-projects. Some require  
no real work, just using existing tools and plug-ins. Others require  
a development effort and a pretty good knowledge of developing plug- 
ins. Some of the sub-projects include:

1. Basic cross development integration. This can be accomplished  
using Eclipse and the CDT ( C/C++ development toolkit ). There are at  
least a few on this list who have accomplished that. The possible  
work here is just documenting the process of setting it up, and  
deciding how the RTEMS applications will be built: Do you want to use  
the makefiles from the examples ( RTEMS_MAKEFILE_PATH ) or go with  
Chris Johns autoconf/automake based examples?

2. GNU debugger integration. This can be accomplished using the Zylin  
Embedded CDT plugin:
http://www.zylin.com/embeddedcdt.html
I'm not sure if there are any other RTEMS specific things that could  
enhance the debugger interface in Eclipse. Perhaps when using CEXP  
and the RTEMS GDB stub, you can build a module and click a button to  
download it to the target?

3. Terminal program: There are Eclipse plug-ins that provide serial  
terminal emulation. This would provide an integrated terminal program  
( or even telnet if you want to use a target shell over the network ).

4. Integration of RTEMS with the Eclipse Device software development  
platform: The Eclipse DSDP is an effort to use eclipse as a standard  
way of developing , debugging and otherwise interacting with embedded  
devices. Website here: http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/
There are many sub-projects in there, but some of the interesting  
ones are:
     Device Debugging:
       http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/dd/

      Target management:
       http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm/
One of the interesting aspects of this is how Wind River has adopted  
Eclipse as the platform for vxWorks and Embedded Linux development.  
To me it appears that they are putting significant effort into  
contributing code back to the DSDP platform and trying to help create  
open standards for this type of development environment. It would be  
nice if this work ends up meaning that an Eclipse platform could talk  
to a target server on either vxWorks, Linux, or RTEMS. I'm sure it  
still has a long way to go before that would happen, but it is  
interesting.

5. Configuration GUI. If we are talking about a complete Eclipse  
integration, then I think it makes sense to build an eclipse plugin  
for an RTEMS configuration editor and perhaps a new project wizard.  
At GSFC, we developed similar eclipse plug-ins for our higher level  
application software configuration, so we ( not me personally ) have  
some experience in developing these. Our plug-in used XML to store  
the configuration parameters, and then could generate the C header  
file for compilation.
Of course if the goal is not Eclipse integration, then any other  
cross platform GUI might work:
GTK+, QT, wx, or even Java

Once some or all of these things are done, then how is it  
distributed? Can we package up a custom RTEMS eclipse, or just  
provide an easy way to take an eclipse release and install the  
necessary plug-ins? In other words, how can it be made a nice easy  
out of the box experience?

Another thing that I feel strongly about is to make sure that  
something is not done to RTEMS that would require a developer to use  
Eclipse or any other IDE. I'm sure there are some here that would  
rather not touch an IDE like eclipse :)

------------

So the scope of this effort is probably beyond the effort of one  
student, but it might be worthwhile to layout an eclipse plan, and  
pick parts of the work that could be done this summer.

BTW, I am willing to serve as a mentor for this work, so feel free to  
discuss this with me.


Alan





On Mar 23, 2008, at 6:41 PM, Joel Sherrill wrote:

> Hi,
>
> Since multiple people are interested, I will try to
> answer.
>
> AFAIK the Eclipse projects will require the student
> to do more learning about Eclipse on their own.  There
> is no Eclipse expert in the RTEMS community.
>
> Unless someone can dig someone up with more Eclipse
> knowledge, this is an area where the mentor will have
> extensive knowledge of the use of the RTEMS tools
> and building applications.  You will be helping them
> turn that into GUI.
>
> -- 
> Joel Sherrill, Ph.D.             Director of Research & Development
> joel.sherrill at OARcorp.com        On-Line Applications Research
> Ask me about RTEMS: a free RTOS  Huntsville AL 35805
>    Support Available             (256) 722-9985
>
>
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