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All Tips of the Day
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Level: 1, Category: GeneralTerm Component
The Term component provides communication with a user terminal via
an asynchronous serial channel. The component can be found in the category
CPU External Devices / Display.
It offers a high-level methods for writing strings and numbers, cursor and
line operations etc.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralDocumentation For The Component
The detailed documentation for a specific component can be easily obtained
- Within a Components Library or Project Panel - use the Help command in a
pop-up menu which is available after the right mouse-click on the component's icon.
- Within the Component Inspector - a Help menu contains the command Help
on Component.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralMethod Invocation
To place method invocation into the code
- Find the method in the Component's subtree in the Project Panel
- Drag the method name to the editor
- Type the parameter values.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralApplication Design Documentation
The Processor Expert help chapter Application Design helps users to
- Understand the Embedded Components concept
- Understand the process of the Code Generation
- Contains many other useful information and tips helping users to
speed up the development and to create an optimized and properly designed
application.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralCopying Or Moving Components With Settings
- Select the component in the source project using the left mouse button and the
Shift or Ctrl key.
- Use the Copy or Cut command from the pop-up
menu of the Project Panel.
This menu is invoked by right button click on the white background of
the Project Panel.
- Switch to the destination project.
- Use the Paste command from the Project Panel pop-up menu.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralChanging Number Format For The Generated Code
Use the Number format option in Project options to choose
between the decimal or hexadecimal format.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralRenaming CPU Peripherals
Names of the peripherals (like pins, timers or converters) used by components
can be changed.
Use Peripheral names editor invoked from CPU component pop-up menu to
change peripheral's name or reset it to a default one.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralComponents Library
Use Components Library to find an Embedded Component suitable for your application and
add it to the project. Categories, On-chip prph, Alphabet tabs offer components
sorted and grouped using specific rules. The Assistant tab offers
easy component selection by answering simple questions.
Use Quick-help button to get more information for the selected component.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralUndo and Redo Commands in Processor Expert
Restores the state of the project before/after a last operation. These
commands are invoked from Processor Expert menu and affects only changes in
the project or components (i.e. adding or removing
components, disabling components, changing settings etc.).
Functionality of these commands is influenced by the environment option
Number of UNDO operations.
The '0' value of this option disables Undo and Redo commands in PE.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralSwitching Between Memory Area Definition And Memory Map Window
- Every memory area definition (in Build Options tab of the CPU) contains
a button that will open a Memory Map window and graphically highlight
the area.
- After double-click on the used memory area within Memory Map window,
it's definition is opened and selected in the Inspector.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralTRUE and FALSE values of bool type
Processor Expert defines the TRUE symbol as 1, however
TRUE and FALSE values are defined according to ANSI-C:
- FALSE is defined as 0 (zero)
- TRUE is any non-zero value.
It follows from this definition, that the bool value cannot be tested using
the expressions like if (value == TRUE).
The correct C expression for such test is if (value).
Level: 1, Category: GeneralSynchronization of the Inspector and Project Tree
Enable the environment option Synchronize Project Tree With Inspector
if you wish to always highlight the currently inspected object
in the tree in the Project Panel. It may be useful especially if
inherited or shared components settings are used.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralTarget CPU window
Target CPU window allows to view
- Complete CPU package with all pins and components using these pins
- CPU peripherals allocation by components
- CPU block diagram of functional blocks and their connections
Level: 1, Category: GeneralProcessor Expert Web Pages
Visit our web pages at www.processorexpert.com for latest updates,
and product information.
Level: 1, Category: GeneralPeripheral Initialization Window
Peripheral Initialization Window allows to view control registers
of a selected peripheral and their initial values that will be set by
Processor Expert initialization routines. An influence of the last change
in a component settings is immediatelly shown and highlighted.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralGeneration of ISRs for Peripheral Initialization Components
- Enabling the Project option Generate ISR will
enable generation of the empty Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) for the
interrupts that needs to be serviced by a user (typically with usage of
Peripheral Initialization Components).
- Generated ISRs are placed in the CPU component's Event module.
- Generated ISRs contains a fast interrupt handling instructions
according to selected priority.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralHow to switch between two variants of component's settings using configurations?
- Create a configuration (if there is no active), insert a first component and configure it.
- Create another configuration and select it is as active.
- Disable the first component.
- Insert a second component of the same type and rename it to the same name as the first component.
- Switch to the first configuration and disable the second component
Level: 2, Category: GeneralReview of changes in generated code
To review changes in files generated by Processor Expert after every
code generation switch on the Track/review changes after code generation
option in Project options.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralExporting Components
To save a component or group of components including their settings
to the file:
- Select components in the Project Panel.
- Use the Export... command from the Project Panel pop-up menu
invoked using the right button click on the white Project Panel background.
The previously exported .pe file can be imported using the Import components...
command from the Project Panel pop-up menu.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralAutomatic Configuration and Target Switching
When the CodeWarrior target is switched to another, the Processor Expert
searches for the configuration with the same name. If it exists, it is set as
active.
Respectively, when the configuration is switched, the target with the same name
is searched and if found it is set as active.
Note: The configuration and target names are case-sensitive.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralGeneration of ISRs for Peripheral Initialization Components
- Enabling the Project option Generate ISR will
enable generation of the empty Interrupt Service Routines (ISRs) for the
interrupts that needs to be serviced by a user (typically with usage of
Peripheral Initialization Components).
- Generated ISRs are placed in the CPU component's Event module.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralSignal Names
Processor Expert allows to assign signal names to individual
pins used by Embedded Components. The list of all signals and related pins is
automatically generated into the text document {projectname}_signals.
This file is accessible directly in the Documentation
folder of the Project Panel.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralSoftware Delay Method
The CPU component method Delay100US provides a speed-mode independent
delay of 100 microseconds multiple implemented as a pure software loop
(It doesn't utilize any hardware timer).
The parameter specifies a delay time as a number of
multiples of 100uS. See the method hint for details.
Note: Occurrences of interrupts can protract the delay time.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralViewing the Interrupt Vectors Table
The list of all MCU interrupt vectors with
information on allocation by components is available in the Interrupts tab of the
Peripheral Usage window. The View menu option
Show Used Peripherals Only allows to filter only the resources allocated
by components.
This window also shows the usage of other
MCU resources like pins, timers or communication channels.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralSpecific Pin Options
Specific pin options, such as LED drive, IR LED drive and slew rate,
can be set in the CPU component inspector - Internal peripherals - I/O module.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralOptimization of the Generated Initialization Code
The size of common initialization code executed at the application start
can be optimized by enabling the option Use after reset values in the
Configuration Inspector.
If this option is enabled, the registers that would be set to the values
equal to after-reset state won't be initialized.
Warning: This optimization shouldn't be used if the application performs
a soft-reset.
See the Configuration Inspector
help for details and other optimization options.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralDo you want the generated code to be faster and smaller ?
See the chapter Application Design / Embedded Components
Optimizations of the Processor Expert help.
Level: 2, Category: GeneralSpecific Pin Options
Specific pin options, such as slew rate and drive strength,
can be set in the CPU component inspector - Internal peripherals - I/O module.
By default, the pins are set to slew rate = no, drive strength = high.
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Copyright 1997 - 2010 Freescale Semiconductor, Inc.
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