RE: [avr-gcc-list] Experimental WinAVR/avr-gcc update for

[E. Weddington]

> 
> What I'd like to see from Atmel is for them to release 
the source to AVR
> Studio 4. It's very close to what I'd like, if it weren't 
buggy and
> incomplete. They claim it's extensible, and I have some 
modules I'd love
> to write for it.
> 
> -brian

I highly doubt they'll open up the source for AVR Studio.

It's extensible in the way that you can write binary plug-
ins for it.

On AVR Studio 3, you can (sort of) have it call a command-
line 3rd party compiler, just by typing in a command line. 
With AVR Studio 4, once it's "complete", you can call a 3rd 
party compiler by writing a "plug-in" for it, no simple 
entering of a command line.

Of course they haven't provided a way to do this yet, in 
effect removing a feature (3rd party compiler calling) that 
was in the previous version. This is one of the main 
reasons why I include Programmers Notepad in WinAVR: to 
provide an easy alternative to using AVR Studio as a build 
environment, and just relegate AVR Studio as a simulator 
only.

There has been suspicion that Atmel wants to keep their 
cozy relationship with IAR; notice how well AVR Studio 
works with the IAR compiler and not others. This would also 
apply to the "we're going to support ELF sometime soon" 
feature.

(Interestingly, according to the unscientific survey at AVR 
Freaks, more people use GCC than any other AVR compiler.)

Eric