Visual Studio Code and the CCS compiler

[allenhuffman]

Has anyone experimented with using Visual Studio Code to do builds with the CCS compiler? A coworker of mine got his set up where it can build and then load to the board all from within VS Code. The only thing he needs the IDE for is setting project settings and using the debugger.

I wondered if anyone had made an extension to handle all of this.
_________________
Allen C. Huffman, Sub-Etha Software (est. 1990) http://www.subethasoftware.com
Embedded C, Arduino, MSP430, ESP8266/32, BASIC Stamp and PIC24 programmer.
http://www.whywouldyouwanttodothat.com ?

[dluu13]

I haven't used VS code for this, but I've only ever used MPLAB X. Since CCS compiler has a plug-in for MPLAB X, setup is quite easy.

But from what I know, VS code is quite flexible. You just have to wait for somebody to write a plug-in... Or do it yourself

[vasiliok]

Visual Studio Code doesn't have a plugin for PICC CCS.

There should be the way to make VSC run pcwhd compiler (aka build project) with args to compile exact file but I can't find how to do this

Anyone could help?

[Ttelmah]

There have been a number of threads about using VS in the past. This one
seems to describe how to do it:

[url]
http://www.ccsinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29216&highlight=visual+studio[/url]

[jeremiah]

[Ttelmah]

I must admit I can't think how you could use MS Visual studio with CCS, or
even think that it would be useful, since it's syntax rules are not changeable.
I assumed that the poster would be asking about a development IDE that
could be used with a compiler like CCS, which VS can. You can integrate
third party compilers with Visual Studio by editing the vcproj file, but it
won't change the syntax rules.
He says 'code' as the last part of the question, so I assumed he was talking
about VS Code, rather that Visual Studio....

[vasiliok]

jeremiah, Ttelmah, thanks!

Yes, about VS Code!

[Ttelmah]

Phew!...

[pgvt]

Please reply if anyone is still interested.

I managed to use vscode with command line compilers that come with PCWHD suite and see nicely the references, do auto-compete as you type - provided by C/C+ language pack' IntelliSense - well, it needed some disabling of "too smart things" ... Also I made an error parser ("problemMatcher") to display and jump to warning / error / info.
Everything is done by 3 files in a sub-folder named .vscode placed in your project folder root.

SCREENSHOT

There is also a convenient way to make a shortcut on Desktop etc. for vscode to open directly this project folder and load your code.[/img]

[allenhuffman]

[pgvt]

1. Create a sub-folder ./vscode and place inside:
2. A new file named tasks.json with contents:

[pgvt]

A quick (maybe old ) vscode editor keys legend and variable references

vscode keys

variables reference

Not sure about "extension" probably it's possible

For me this way is ok, I simply copy-past the same .vscode to all my projects.
BTW, the git stuff works as well.

Now, I see the references instead of scratch my head every time.

The PCW IDE is still great as the main one to be used, but it is good to have more advanced editor. Hope the command-line and visual compiler work exactly same way and no worries about any difference in compiling.

For now, the ccload and extra tools I use as external .bat files and don't mess-up with vscode integrating ...

Yeah. I believe instead of ccscon ccsc can be used - i did this in NPP in the past. But here the +STDOUT somewhat didn't want to pass the output.

[pgvt]

To call the compiler, vscode needs to be focused at your <project-main>.c file, then select "Run Task" from the upper side middle (general search) of vscode and then "Build by PICC Compiler"

[pgvt]

Here it is as a vscode extension ... whatever:

Extension: vscode-picc-ccs-support-0.0.1.vsix with screenshots

Once installed as extension, navigate to your project folder and activate.
See the 2 png files in the zip how to install the extension and how to use it.

Enjoy.

[kieranjefferies]

Thank you pgvt