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From the mbed microcontroller Handbook.  

mbed Compiler

Take the mbed Tour

Instant access to your lightweight C/C++ microcontroller development environment

The mbed Compiler provides a lightweight online C/C++ IDE that is pre-configured to let you quickly write programs and compile and download them to run on your mbed Microcontroller. In fact, you don't have to install or set up anything to get running with mbed. Because it is a web app, you can log in from anywhere and carry on where you left off, and you are free to work on Windows, Mac or Linux, or all three.

/media/uploads/simon/cross-platform.png

It may be online and lightweight, but it is also powerful. The compiler uses the professional ARMCC compiler engine, so it produces efficient code that can be used free-of-charge, even in commercial applications. The IDE includes workspace version control, code formatting and auto-generation of documentation for published libraries. The mbed tools are focused on prototyping and are designed for fast experimentation, and complement other professional production-level tools; you can even export directly to other toolchains if you choose, as you progress to productise your design.

You can publish projects directly from your compiler workspace to the mbed.org website to share code with others, and pull existing libraries in to your workspace to get a head start.

Feature Highlights

Online Compiler IDE

Every mbed user account gets their own private compiler workspace which contains their programs. This is private to you, and available wherever you login to mbed.

The IDE includes a full code editor including syntax highlighting, standard editor keyboard shortcuts, copy/paste, tabs etc, and even a code auto-formater. This is where you work on your personal workspace, with multiple files, folders, programs, including a drag and drop folder interface:

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/simon/beta-tabs.pnghttp://mbed.org/media/uploads/simon/beta-find02.png

The editor also includes features like find and searching across multiple files and filetypes; for example, searching across your whole program. When you search, the results will appear as a list in the compiler output window where you can jump to any of them with a click:

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/simon/beta-find03.png

Integrated Version Control

You can use the built-in version control features to let you version, branch and merge code, with a nice representation of the state of your project history:

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/simon/_scaled_screen_shot_2011-06-14_at_21.08.49.png

The approach should be familiar to those of you with experience of distributed version control models (as used by mercurial/git); each program has its own local repository, so you can commit and perform actions on it within your own workspace (such as updating, branching and showing changes).

The main things you can do include:

Importing Libraries or Example Programs

The import wizard allows you to import programs from an mbed URL. This is useful for importing code that has been packaged as a reusable library component (e.g. a class for a peripheral), so you can quickly pull in the building blocks for your project.

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/dan/import.png

You can discover the programs or libraries on the mbed website, find it in the import wizard, or use a known URL.

The compiler IDE also allows you to easily publish your programs or libraries to the code section of the mbed Developer Website, so you can easily share your achievements (or problems!) with others.

Compilation

To perform the actual compilation the mbed Compiler uses the industry standard ARM RVDS 4.1 compiler engine, in the default configuration, to give excellent code size and performance. There are no limitations on code size (apart from the limits of the device itself!), and the generated code can be used freely for commercial and non-commercial use.

When you compile a program, you'll get a display of the memory usage. This shows the size of program code and any constant (const) variables that will end up in FLASH, and size of data variables that end up in main RAM.

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/dan/details.png

Note, this doesn't include the runtime allocated variables (i.e. the heap and stack), which live in any remaining RAM. See the mbed Memory Model

Export to Offline Toolchains

The mbed C/C++ SDK used with the mbed Online Compiler is also compatible with a number of other popular ARM microcontroller toolchains, so we've also built in the ability to export directly to these toolchains! For example, if you'd like to migrate to a different toolchain as your project develops past prototype, you can choose to export an mbed project by right-clicking on it:

http://mbed.org/media/uploads/emilmont/export_2.png

Features List

Code IDE

Compile Engine

Built-in Version Control

Importing and Exporting

See also

Take the mbed Tour



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Last modified 15 Dec 2011, by   user Dan Ros   tag No tags | 11 comments      

11 comments on mbed Compiler:

user Dean Feken
20 Oct 2010

Having some difficulty with mouse usage within the compiler window. Can't seem to make it select the area the mouse is pointing to. Using the arrow keys seems to work. I also need a good reference for embeded C as applied to the mbed. I have experience with PIC assembly language, but zero with C. Thanks Dean

user Jan Hansen
31 Oct 2010

I have searched for the official compiler and library reference. According to this page, the cloud compiled is using ARM RVDS 4.1 compiler. The following link contains reference information for the compiler.

http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dui0475b/Cihgdcdj.html

Jan

user Dennis Bahr
04 Nov 2010

I want to embed assembly code in C code. How can I turn off thumb mode so that the compiler will allow me to do this? The declaration arm should do this, but I don't know where the compiler commands are located.

Dennis

user Simon Ford
04 Nov 2010

Hi Dennis,

The older "inline assembler" is not supported by thumb mode, hence the error. But a Cortex-M3 only has thumb mode, so turning it off won't help :)

The newer "embedded assembler" is much neater, and should work fine. Here is an example:

Code

#include <stdio.h>

__asm void my_strcpy(const char *src, const char *dst) {
loop
      LDRB  r3, [r0], #1
      STRB  r3, [r1], #1
      CMP   r3, #0
      BNE   loop
      BX lr
}

int main() {
    const char *a = "Hello world!";
    char b[20];
    my_strcpy (a, b);
    printf("Original string: '%s'\n", a);
    printf("Copied   string: '%s'\n", b);
}

Hope that gets you what you need!

Simon

user Dennis Bahr
04 Nov 2010

Simon:

Is this like the Keil Compiler where I can't use embedded assembly to get to the stack pointer?

Dennis

user Paul Tanner
21 Mar 2011

I can't see how to use a library that is not already in the system. Import >> Click Library I thought maybe if I point to where it is it could be uploaded but the Import button greys out. If that were possible I'd also need to know what format was expected (e.g. source, zipped) Thx. Paul

user Simon Ford
21 Mar 2011

When you import a library, make sure you set the target path (where to import to); until you do this, the import button will stay disabled. When importing from your local machine, you can select source files or a zip containing source files.

user Pulkit UbSonic
20 Apr 2011

Hi Simon for your ID12 RFID reader program that you wrote, where will the output appear? Where does the printf Hello World appear and the RFID tag serial? I cant locate anything for View on the compiler.. is there a way to achieve that?

Thanks.

user Tyler Wilson
10 Jun 2011

It looks to me like the gcc switch is set on the RVDS compiler to enable GCC extensions. Is there a way to tuen this off? I have some code which uses the GCC feature labels as switch tags, but the RVDS in GCC compatible mode does not support this.

Thanks, Tyler

user Adam Green
15 Dec 2011

Quote:

The IDE includes a full code editor including <snip> standard editor keyboard shortcuts...

Are the keyboard shortcuts supported by the editor documented somewhere? Do they change depending on the user's platform? The ones that I have found appear to be more Windows specific and require extra chording on OS X. I can use Command+RightArrow to go to the end of a line but pressing Command+DownArrow doesn't take me to the end of the document as I would expect on OS X. It appears to be Fn+Control+RightArrow to go to the end of the document which feels like a mapping of Window's Control+End keystroke.

user ceri clatworthy
15 Dec 2011

Is there going to be a more Android tablet friendly version.

Editing is impossible on a tablet ! Even with a mouse !!!

Regards Ceri

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