MPLAB / Harmony / Documentation : bugged to death ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2014, 02:48:32 pm
content: Hello everyone, got my first PIC yesterday (a PIC32MZ EC Starter Kit).I get bug after bug ... is it just me or the microchip dev environnementandthe documentation is a nightmare ?I submitted my first ticket about a documentation error and it was accepted.I'm filling a 2nd ticket right now because ... the harmony help pdf is PASSWORD PROTECTED ?I got other bugs i couldn't reproduce yet... like : a java stacktrace error dumped into a generated C filesAnd some other troubles...Am i doing it wrong ?

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2014, 05:27:07 pm
content: QuoteExpecting Microchip software to work.They make superb hardware, and superbly stupid software.

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2014, 06:19:19 pm
content: Quote from: dannyf on September 02, 2014, 05:27:07 pmAt least they make superb hardware

author: Carrington
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2014, 06:30:45 pm
content: Quote from: ker2x on September 02, 2014, 02:48:32 pmI fully agree, is a nightmare. If they don't give you the password, you can use this tool "GuaPDF" (not free) or similar.But the help_harmony.pdf file in the previos versions has many errors.Better use this file: "C:\microchip\harmony\v1_00\doc\help_harmony.chm". Although, it is still difficult to understand.

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 02, 2014, 08:27:32 pm
content: 2 tickets in 2 days, we'll see what happen tomorrow

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 08:51:13 am
content: The good thing is : It seems that they take theses tickets seriously and they reply quickly. (both tickets were handled in less than 24h)

author: dannyf
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 11:15:46 am
content: QuoteI assume that their staffing levels reflect their assessment of their software's quality.

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 01:02:49 pm
content: i managed to reproduce the java backtrace dumped in a c file.3rd ticket submited in 3 days

author: Rufus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 01:42:33 pm
content: Quote from: ker2x on September 02, 2014, 02:48:32 pmIt probably isn't password protected. Acrobat 9.5 says a newer version of acrobat is required to read it. An older PDF viewer says it is password protected.So however they generated it is messed up and they didn't test/check what they generated nearly well enough but it is unlikely they password protected it for reading.Their other documentation generally requires acrobat 7 upwards and is password protected for modification which is stupid and annoying.

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 01:47:40 pm
content: Quote from: Rufus on September 03, 2014, 01:42:33 pmIt's not password protected in the windows package.It's password protected in both macosx and linux package.They reproduced the problem

author: Carrington
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 02:31:33 pm
content: This document (help_harmony.pdf) use a 256-bit AES encryption,is a compressed document(Acrobat X compatible).Seems that this document is not ready to be used, the first page is blank. I attached the first 10 pages.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 03:14:53 pm
content: I consider it risky to do any projects in Harmony at this time other than simple explore.

author: Carrington
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 04:21:37 pm
content: Quote from: Bud on September 03, 2014, 03:14:53 pmIn my case is just curiosity.But 'Harmony' seems too complex... By now, I hate it.

author: BloodyCactus
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 03, 2014, 05:11:41 pm
content: Im sticking to plib, harmony is not finished yet despite microchip pushing it on everyone.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2014, 02:34:44 am
content: To me it is bloody complex at the first and second try. Then I slowly started to understand it. Also the format of #define's naming is ridiculously long, to the point that probably they hated it themselves - in examples they actually re-#define them back to PLib shorter names.Unfortunately this is where Microchip is going, at least with PIC32, so we have to learn it.

author: ker2x
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: September 04, 2014, 05:58:26 am
content: I'm interested in Harmony because of the OSAL lib & the FreeRTOS port