What is the long-term future of Dynamic C?

Rabbit
1

I’ve been developing for the Rabbit since 2003. My current product is mature, but I’m looking at a whole new application area.

I started developing with DC 8.3, and have slowly migrated up to 9.25, but I’m afraid to go any further. It’s clear to everyone in the community that things went whacko when DC moved up past 9.25 … existing programs wouldn’t compile, things didn’t “fit” any more and string handling went you know where.

before I start on a whole new product development path, I need to KNOW that rabbit semiconductor is SERIOUS about supporting the existing product base into the future with a RELIABLE compiler that won’t force me to re-write and re-test my code each update.

At present I’m afraid to upgrade further than 9.25 and I’ve not seen ANYTHING printed or posted to re-assure me it’s worth it. If I’m faced with rebuilding my current applications I may as well switch to Softools, and if rabbit is going to drop out of the compiler business in the next year or so, I’d rather know now…

It just seems like DC is treated as a poor cousin to the hardware, despite the fact that all “production” designs really need rock solid language tools.

So… Here’s your chance to convince me to stick with DC. Is there anyone moderating this forum that has responsibility on the DC design team… if such a thing even exists… And if so… what are the stated goals for Rabbit Semiconductor’s future Dynamic C development/support.

Thanks…
Phil Malone
(Only shipped 40 RCM3700’s so far, but I’d like to ship a lot more)

2

I tried two approaches to this problem.

  1. Posted my question on this, the official DC forum.
    I waited a week, and received no answers (official or un-official)
    That speak volumes in terms of apathy within Rabbit Semiconductor.

  2. Posted a simmilar question on the rabbit-semi Google Group.
    I got a lot of replies which basically indicated that no-one active on the group is happy with the current DC release, especially if they have an existing code base written prior to DC9.25

All in all, it’s pretty dissapointing.

My future choices seem to be:

  1. Stick with Rabbit core modules and
    Live with a marginally supported non-ansi compiler,
    or commit to a sole source third party ansi compiler.

  2. Switch to a different hardware platform and work with open source ansi tool chains.

Hmmm…

If I switch, it’s not likely to be another product sold by DIGI, just on the principal of it…

3

I haven’t been chasing Rabbits as long as you have, but I started with 9.10 and have successfully migrated to 9.50 - I had to do so in order to use the FAT & RabbitWeb libraries. It seems to work OK with both 3600 & 3700 CoreModules. My 3600 code will compile & run with either version (the 3700 uses hardware features that don’t allow that test.)

Obviously I can’t speak for Rabbit. They have just come out with a V 10 for R4000 processors, so it doesn’t seem like they’re dropping it entirely.

For what it’s worth … :slight_smile: