Hi Hop,

I've finally got some time this weekend to delve into the world of C - you have answered a lot of my questions with this tutorial!

I did find some errors, one was induced by some old site settings, the other was while following the guide step by step (excellent guide by the way - picking up new software idiosyncrasies can be quite frustrating). The errors;

- Anything in tags (such as includes) where removed (old site settings did this on article saves, it has been fixed).
- The Libraries directory needed to be C:MCC18h (I had build errors with C:MCC18 declared).

I've updated the include files and uploaded new images which reflect the path change - hope you don't mind.

Once again, thanks for the article! (PS - I archived the old comments on this article to clean things up a little more)

Edit: above should read C: -backslash- MCC18 -backslash- h, backslashes are omitted from these comments for sql compatibility issues with other backend stuff. Backslashes work fine in articles though *

Edit (16 Mar 2010): Seems somewhere along the line that the mod for include tags had disappeared. I've re-added it as of today.

I'll read and enjoy your tutorial, hopefully learning much but...

"Also, please bare with me"

is going too far. I ain't gettin' nekked for no teacher.

LOL

Anyone using BoostC?

Nice and well done Tutorial!

FYI concerning : Page 7 of 12
Configuring the project: Build Options - Search Paths:

If you cant't find the lkr sub-folder, dont worry,

The linker files aren't missing, they're now obsolete.

from : http://www.microchip.com/forums/printable.aspx?m=463383

" The multiple linker files per CPU have been replaced by a single _g linker file. This is probably discussed in the compiler's release notes.

Any instructions that tell you to use 18f45k20i.lkr are outdated. You no longer need to use a linker file at all; MPLAB IDE will use the correct linker file automatically. If you have added a linker file to your project, remove it."

Thanks for going to the trouble of creating this tutorial. It was just what I needed to refresh my mind about functions, declarations etc., but within a practical context.

Greetings from Slovakia :) super

The author (Hop) suggests to "set the target PIC's configuration bits in a separate header file "xxx ConfigBits.h".

This is a bad practice since the bits actually CONFIGURE the PIC uC to act in a PARTICULAR manner therefore the bits programmed are NOT processor specific only - they are APPLICATION specific as well.

For example for PIC16F690: bit 3 (called WDTE in PIC16F690 manual) enables or disables Watchdog Timer. So in one user program (say AA.C the watchdog timer might be needed while in another user program BB.C (but still for THE SAME PIC uC type) that timer might not be needed (used / required).

So it is a better practice to have the configuration bits listed in your MAIN "C" file - and of course good practice is to ADD COMMENTS to each of those bits so that you / others now / in future would easily see what is the uC configured for.