#13 Peripheral registers view in debug

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

A preliminary version of the debug plug-in is available for evaluation.

Apart from code restructuring, the major addition is a 'Peripherals' view added to the same region where processor registers are displayed.

To make this new view work, there are several preconditions

• the Packs plug-in must be installed in Eclipse
• the packages related to the processors in use must be installed (in the Packs perspective)
• the build configuration for the project under debug must have the device associated to it (use project properties -> C/C++ Build -> Settings -> Devices, and select the device)

Then, once the debug session is started, the Peripherals view is populated with the definitions encountered in the CMSIS SVD file.

Checking one peripheral adds a new monitor to the Memory view, and a custom rendering shows the registers and the bit-fields. If not read-only, the value is editable.

Known problems of the current version:

• in certain cases the derivedFrom definition might not work as expected
• the dimElementGroup is not yet implemented, so parametrised register names are instantiated only once
• the cluster definitions are not fully implemented, so the new Atmel devices may not be rendered properly
• the scaling definitions (KMGT) for scaledNonNegativeInteger is not implemented
• the prependToName definitions are not implemented (affects Atmel devices)
• the enumeration definitions are not yet implemented
• the list of active peripheral monitors is not preserved from one session to the other
• 8-bit registers are shown with 16-bit values

[Liviu Ionescu (ilg)]

A new beta version is available for testing.

Solved problems:
- the dimElementGroup was implemented, so parametrised register names and clusters are instantiated properly
- the scaling definitions (KMGT) for scaledNonNegativeInteger were implemented
- 8-bit registers are shown with 8-bit values
- viewing unions (registers with same address) is implemented
- the group, version and reset value are visible as tooltips

Known problems:
- in certain cases the derivedFrom definition might not work as expected
- the enumeration definitions are not yet implemented
- the list of active peripheral monitors is not preserved from one session to the other
- editing a union member does not propagate changes to its siblings

If no serious bugs are reported, the Peripherals view will be frozen for now, in preparation for the public release.