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User avatar
By ClaytonAllen
#25047 Well Sir,

I am a few pages deep and so far very thrilled!

Thanks so much for taking your time to make this. I wanted to ask however, on page 55 you mention using eclipse to program the ESP on Windows. Isn't also possible to utilize the C/C++ Eclipse on MAC? I was able to download it free of charge. But not sure that it's the same as the Windows environment.

Also just another side note... If you want help making your book a bit more "designed", please feel free to reach me. I am a graphic and web designer/developer. I see this book becoming the "bible" soon.

Again I can't thank you enough for taking the time to put this together!

Cheers,
Clayton Allen
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By kolban
#25048 Howdy Clayton,
First, many thanks for the kind words. They are really appreciated.

I see this as the start of the book, not the end ... I plan to re-release it on or about the 1st of each month with whole new sections and corrections.

A few months back, when I started on the ESP8266 journey, I took Mr Cherts Eclipse package and built a program ... and then it was all a black box. It worked, but I had no idea "why" or "how" it worked. I'm pleased to say that many of the mists have lifted. So, at a high level, to compile a program on a Mac, you will need a C compiler for the mac. However, not just any C compiler. As I understand it, you will need a C compiler that generates Xtensa binary. For example, on a Windows machine, a C compiler that generates Intel binary would be of no use ... so we need and use a C compiler that compiles to Xtensa binary that we can then upload. However, the C compiler itself has to run natively on Windows. Same for your Mac, you will need a C compiler that runs natively on OSx but yet generates Xtensa binary.

Fortunately, I think that problem has already been solved. The good guys that distribute the Arduino IDE support ... which I believes includes OSx support ... also provide compilers ... my gut tells me that THEY get their compilers from yet another project ... but I don't know the identity of that one yet.

Getting back to Eclipse ... Eclipse provides the editors but a "toolchain" is invoked to compile the source ... so Eclipse doesn't care "who" provides the compilers and linkeditors, as long as they are present at compile time.

And that is the "loose" story ... what we need to do now is think through a path from notion to achievement, document the "parts" and document the "steps" ... and we will have a new documented asset ... but in my head, everything we need is already present ... just some assembly required.

Neil
User avatar
By voyo
#25067 Hi Kolban,
I'v found today your book, good idea - looks very promising , Im just reading it trough. However I came across a little inaccuracy , you wrote :
"During boot, the ESP8266
attempts to automatically determine the baud rate of the partner and match it. It does this by
sending some data down the serial line and looking for expected responses. It tries this at
different baud rates until it finds a match or gives up. When it gives up, the default is 115200. A
side effect of this is that during boot, if you have a terminal emulator attached, you will see what
appear to be gibberish data before the normal text. As long as you understand that this is just
protocol negotiations and that these are expected, there is nothing further to say. Ignore it. "

- which is not true. Device during boot is communication on UART with not typical speed - 76800 , reporting its boot mode. Probably this is that "gibberish data" you are talking about.

cheers,