#reserve, #locate, #zero_ram

[LT1User]

Hi all. I have come across a little oddity in my application that I'm hoping someone here can help shed some light on. I have implemented a bootloader and have used the #reserve and #locate pre-processor directives to keep my bootloader's variables at the same address location between builds. That works fine. The problem comes in when I use the #zero_ram directive. This appears to skip the #locate'd memory areas.

Here is an example:

char ch1;
char ch2;
.
.
.

#zero_ram
#reserve 0xD00:0xEFF

#locate ch1 = 0xD00
#locate ch2 = 0xD01
.
.
.


This snippet will initialize all but the #locate'd memory space.

I guess my question is this: Is there a CCS directive (or a better use of the above directives) that will allow the #locate'd or #reserve'd RAM to be included in the #zero_ram directive's scope or am I stuck writing my own code to accomplish this (which isn't difficult, but shouldn't be necessary)?

BTW: I'm using build 3.187 inside of MPLAB, target is 18F8720

Thank you in advance.

[Haplo]

Both #locate and #reserve stop the compiler from using that specific memory area. There are ways around it, for example by using #byte instead of #locate. But then this won't stop the compiler from using that memory location. Whether this is acceptable or not depends on your application.