This question already has answers here:
Closed 12 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Professionnal VHDL IDE ?
can anybody tell me IDE where i can write VHDL codes?
Xilinx and Altera both have IDES available for free download.
At least as of a few years ago when I was using it regularly, the Xilinx software didn't handle updates well at all -- to the point that if you decide to use it, I'd recommend installing it in a virtual machine, and if you ever decide to update it, do a clean install into a fresh VM image.
Your simulator software should have a primitive ID. Xilinx, Altera, Cadence, ModelSim all have primitive VHDL and Verilog IDEs.
Actually, most HDL developers I've worked with don't use the IDEs except for non-HDL related tasks like top-level schematic capture, routing, and analysis. On the teams I've worked on, Notepadd++ was popular, as well as Vi and Emacs. I never had a license for it, but one partner company used Visual SlickEdit for all of its editing. It seemed like a nice tool.
We used Cadence when I was doing my EE undergrad. No complaints (which is rare for university-provided software).
Related
This question already has answers here:
Find Programming Language Used
(14 answers)
Closed 2 years ago.
The question is simple from a programmer's point of view. How do you know which language / libraries has been used to develop a specific software product.
Say you have average knowledge of computing who can understand by checking product file (.exe, .dll, etc) names / versions that this piece of software has been written using Visual C++ / .Net / QT , etc.
Any solid ideas by which one can know about a programs's programming language?
#baza92
Thanks for the link. It just opened my mind.
I do use ProcessExplorer, ProcessMonitor.
For better investigation even one can use Spy++ utility provided with Visual studio. PEiD can be useful, but these days application program comes with packed method so PEiD is unabled to digg through those files.
So I would strongly suggest anyone who is or will be looking for these things follow the below steps.
Investigate program files - .exe, .dll, .ocx
Check loaded modules into program memory by ProcessExplorer or similar
Use Spy++ to get the window class, try to search that on google
I'm looking for opinions from Mono developers.
I want to create applications for Linux/Mac/Windows and looking for the best GUI toolkit option. I'm not asking what the best actually is, because that is a matter of opinions.
My main question is if wxNet is a good option for cross platform GUI's. The main reason I ask this question, is because the 'latest' news on their website is almost 3 years ago. That's a long time in software development.
Is wxNet still a good solution, or should I go for Winforms on Windows, GTK on Linux and MonoMac for OSX?
Some years ago it seemed like a decent solution to target all platforms in a native way.
But given that wxWindows is implemented in unmanaged code, and it requires a .NET binding (wxNet), it might be a bit obscure for you to surf the code and fix a bug if you ever find one.
That's why nowadays I recommend XWT, which is fully implemented in managed code (C#) and achieves the same native-way in all platforms. (And it is heavily maintained.)
This question already has answers here:
Closed 10 years ago.
Possible Duplicate:
Portable Programming IDE
(cross-post from /r/programming # reddit)
It doesn't need to be a full-blown IDE, a compiler would do (though syntax highlighting would be great||something like Sublime Text).
Since I usually only program in Linux, I'd like to try programming with windows.h. (It seems a messy API, though.) I guess the compiler would include it?
If there's no decent compiler/IDE I'll have to go with web programming, but after so much time it's tiring. Thanks a lot!
Compiler - MinGW GCC. It may be portable, just need to set up environment from batch file.
IDE (did you mean editor?) - Far Manager with Colorer plugin (at least) and ConEmu for tabs and more. Imho, it is the best for developers and of course, Far is console applicatipn. Far 3.x is fully portable (settings are stored in sqlite db's). ConEmu may be portable too (creare ConEmu.xml file). And yes, I'm the author of ConEmu ;)
Closed. This question is opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.
Want to improve this question? Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by editing this post.
Closed 9 years ago.
Improve this question
I was using Turbo Pascal for about 20 years, but now I have changed my computer, and I have Windows 7 now. TP does not work under it. What similar language can I use instead of TP, that will require from me to spend minimum possible time studying it.
There is FreePascal:
http://www.freepascal.org/
It appears to be supported, I'm not sure how different it is to the Borland variant though.
Delphi is another option.
If you want to run the 20 year old Turbo Pascal on Win 7, you still can.
Download DosBox, and run TurboPascal in there.
http://www.dosbox.com/
Turbo Pascal evolved into Delphi, which is still used today but might be hard to find.
Your options are probably:
Delphi
GNU Pascal
Free Pascal
FreePascal has a switch for TurboPascal compatibility (so you will have no need to change your programming habbits), and it can generate DOS, WIN32, WIN64 and other executables.
Turbo Pascal to Delphi (~ object oriented Pascal) would seem like the natural choice / progression.
Although a lot of other languages today are relatively easy to pick up as well (Python, Ruby, etc...).
Yes, the natural progression would be to change to Lazarus/Freepascal or Delphi.
I strongly agree that you can still run TP if you liked, though.
However, it is a very good opportunity for an update. C# is a programming language that was developed by the creator of Turbo Pascal/Delphi, and indeed it has many features borrowed from Object Pascal.
If you choose C# development of Mono, you can use very modern GUI such as Monodevelop and create multi-platform applications with GTK# without any effort.
http://www.mono-project.com/Main_Page
http://monodevelop.com/
If you don't care about being multiplatform, you prefer to write software only for Windows, then you can choose Visual C# 2010 Express (its free):
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Downloads/#2010-Visual-CS
What kind of software do you expect to be able to write? Is this for professional development, hobby use,...?
If you are writing COTS software for Windows, I'd suggest one of the .NET languages. C# probably has the most publicly available tutorials, free code, controls, and such. Or learn Ruby and separate yourself from the crowd.
Maybe its time to learn C# or something. Its probably going to save you more time in the long run. However you could purchase embarcadero . This is a recent version of the pascal language that supports some more modern features like generics. Old pascal code bases are compatible with it. There's also oxygene which allows you to use all the advantages of .net with pascal like syntax.
There is of course also free pascal
Well, I learnt PASCAL (Turbo Pascal) during my secondary school just for OI.But I strongly recommend Free Pascal OR Delphi.
Reasons:
1.Absolutely support OOP(especially Delphi).
2.Support to compile your code by Turbo Pascal.
3.New functions:
(a).Opreator reloading.(like c++)
(b).Ansi String.(I think it is very important for NO-ENGLISH countries.
(c).IT IS A GOOD BRIGE FOR YOU TO LEARN OTHER OOP Languages like:C++,JAVA,PYTHON.
(d).The VLC(like MFC in visual c++) function is very strong,for example:Indy in Delphi(for Net programming);
4.Download Url:
http://www.freepascal.org/
http://www.embarcadero.com/cn/products/delphi
Python.
Cross platform, free, open source.
Has PyGTK, Tcl, wxWidgets and many more libraries for GUIs.
An application you write in Python will likely run well on all three main OSes (Windows, Linux, Mac) with little to no changes.
Python's syntax is similar to Pascal's but there are several important differences. For one, you don't define variables, and the types of variables are free to change. And there are no if ... then ... begin ... end statements as indentation is used.
It is also much more forgiving than Pascal syntax and type wise (not that that should be a reason for choosing a language!)
Because it is interpreted it will be slower. That can be a disadvantage for some applications, but it's usually not noticeable.
If you've learned Pascal well, then there are two ways: c++ (programming language that was written on Pascal) and Delphi (the reincarnation of Pascal).
C++ looks similar to Pascal, but it is more powerful.
Delphi uses VCL (visual components library), so you can create windowed applications very fast.
Good luck.
As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, visit the help center for guidance.
Closed 10 years ago.
I want to pick up FPGA programming. I've heard all types of horror stories of proprietary tools. Is there any entirely open-source tool chain available?
If not, how should I learn this? My background: familiar with Scheme, C++, assembly, and MIPS architecture.
There will likely never be a complete open source tool chain for FPGAs unless we manage to develop an open source FPGA architecture. The FPGA companies control the bitstream formats used to program their parts and they have onerous legal language in their user agreements that make it a rather dangerous proposition to try to develop open source tools by reverse engineering (nobody wants to lose their house).
The good news, though, is that many of the patents that protect FPGA architectures are expiring over the next few years. That could make it possible to develop an open source FPGA architecture. Of course, you'd need a few semiconductor companies to get on board and actually manufacture it...
As has been pointed out, there are free HDL simulation tools like Icarus Verilog and GHDL (a VHDL frontend for gcc). But all you can do with them is simulate your design to ensure that it's functionally correct. You then need some sort of synthesis tool to take your HDL to gates and eventually to the bitstream. Xilinx and Altera have free web editions of such tools, but they are definitely not open source.
Icarus is an open source Verilog implementation. You will still need the tool chain from your FPGA vendor to get the code on the FPGA itself.
The gEDA project has some free EDA tools that you may want to check out. The above mentioned Icarus is part of gEDA.
Also check out Fedora Electronic Lab. This is something new to me so I can't provide more info.
I don't think there are any open source complete toolchains available. You might want to look at the Altera Web edition. A free trial download. You can use the MIPS-like Nios2 processor and program it in C and C++ (GNU toolset). There is a Linux port available also.
While proprietary, there hasn't been an open-source toolchain since the late 90's for Altera/Intel or Xilinx. However both Altera and Xilinx have had their free limited version for long enough you would be safe using them.
If you wish to just learn the language, one of the tools above would work. But I would still use a real vendor's toolchain. Since you would be just writing standard Verilog or VHDL, you could take your source to another vendor, just like C.
It looks like the other posts have directly answered the question here. Just thought I'd also mention taking a look at opencores.com... This site has open source HDL (Verilog and VHDL) implementations of working hardware...
You still require the vendor's tool to actually program the FPGA device (as mentioned by others), but companies like Altera provide free web edition tools (Quartus II web-edition) which is free to download. The free versions don't have all the bells and whistles, but it will be enough to get you going for some of their lower-mid range devices (Cyclone II, III, Stratix II)... Pretty cheap chips sometimes (US$80 or so for the Cyclone III 40k gate FPGA).
-So putting it all together, go to the FPGA vendor's website, check out Cyclone series FPGAs and make a purchase for what you need.
-Set up your environment with the free web-edition (Altera.. I am not sure about Xilinx)
-Grab a complete simple project from opencores.com
-Program the FPGA and test it (simulation is separate software tool from current Quartus II tool version)
Note, you may need to buy a vendor-specific programmer (JTAG pins)... A good place to check out some basic projects may be at sparkfun.com.
Happy developing!
Check out a list of ready-to-use boards at http://www.fpga-faq.com/FPGA_Boards.shtml.