A bit OT, Windows programming.

Jim Hearne · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 109 Location: West Sussex, UK

Hi all,
I now need to write some windows (XP and Vista) applications to go with our Pic based controllers.
I'm quite happy programming in PIC C but the last pc applications i did were in Dos and Borland Turbo C.
I've tried to learn C++ a few years back but the object orientation gave me a headache.
Can anybody recommend what i should learn nowadays.
C++ seems to have evolved into c# and then .net ( i think).

Whatever it is needs to be able to talk to pc serial ports without to much grief.

Any recommendations on good books as well would be handy.

Sorry for the OT post but it seemed the best place to ask.

Thanks,

Jim

Matro · Guest

Hi,

A little confusion in your mind :
.NET is a framework and not a language. You can make .NET application in Delphi, VB, C++, C#, J#, ...
I you are sure that the application will never be compiled for another OS I think the quicker way will be in VB .NET.
So VB 2003 or 2005 or 2008 (respectively for .NET 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0).
You can download free "express edition" from Microsoft website to try.
VB will be easy to learn and the fastest way to achieve your application.
Almost everything will be done graphically (even getting the communication with the serial port).
The help comming with VB will be largely enough to find what you need.

Regards,
Matro.

Jim Hearne · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 109 Location: West Sussex, UK

Thanks for the reply.
Indeed, i'm a bit confused with all the current languages. and frameworks !
I'd not really considered VB as the last Basic programming i did was on the BBC Micro, since i learnt C a long time ago i've only ever used that.
I know Microsoft used to do Visual Basic and Visual C.

But i will certainly go and look at the free version.

Thanks,

Jim

jma_1 · Joined: 08 Feb 2005 Posts: 147 Location: Wisconsin

Greetings Jim,

The Express versions come in J#, C#, C++, and VB.

There have been a few posts on the website concerning PC side serial port application.

You might even consider National Instruments Labview. With Labview and the executable builder, you can deploy your application to any PC with the free run time environment. Labview even has a built in installer. The cost is fairly large, but the ease of use and functionality is very good.

The programming language is just a tool. Most languages will communicate with a serial port without too much trouble. Even Java will access a port if you use serialio package or the javax.com. package.

Cheers
JMA

Jim Hearne · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Posts: 109 Location: West Sussex, UK

Thanks,
I'm downloading the DVD version at the moment.
Then i can have a look at all the express versions.

Jim

John P · Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 331

For the last few years I've been using the free LCC compiler written by Jacob Navia. You can get it here:
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

It has its quirks, but the feature I immediately liked was that it comes with a Wizard which automatically sets up the shell of a program which is guaranteed to run without you having to write a line of code, and you don't have to deal with any of the Mickey-Mouse business that Windows imposes. Then you can add whatever your program actually needs. Maybe they all do that, but I don't know the others!

My software is strictly minor stuff to interact with hardware, and the LCC compiler is fine for that.

Edited to say, if your main usage of a compiler on the PC is to interact with your microprocessor projects, you'd be interested in interfaces, and these days it seems to be USB or nothing. After some initial worrying, I've done very well with the interface chips from FTDI. To the PC, they look like serial ports but with numbers that can go pretty high, but once you get the thing going, it's just like a serial port to both the PC and the PIC. Your program on the PC tells it what baud rate to run at, and if you match that with the baud rate on the PIC, that's all there is to it.

SherpaDoug · Joined: 07 Sep 2003 Posts: 1640 Location: Cape Cod Mass USA

I too was a Turbo C programmer, as well as QuickBASIC and Fortran. I tried VB a few years ago and was quite discouraged. I asked for help from the local VB and C++ guru and he tried for a couple of days to get VB to talk to my PIC like my QuickBASIC program did. He ended up writing routines in C++ to be called by VB.
So I gave up on VB, and since more and more of my work is Linux based I have gone to Sun's Java so I can run on Linux, Windows, and presumably most anything else.
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