Commandline Options

The vic compiler can accept commandline options that mainly allow the user to reuse code for other Microchip’s PIC® MCUs and modify the pragma statements on the fly.

Here is a list of the commandline options currently supported in both short and long form:

• -h, --help: This option displays the help message for the compiler.

• --version: This option displays the version number of the compiler.

• --list-chips: This option lists the microcontroller chips supported by the compiler.

• --list-simulators: This option lists the simulators supported by the compiler.

• --verbose: This option turns on verbose printing of the compiler during compile time. This is different from the --debug or --intermediate options which are for the compiled code.

• -d, --debug: This option turns on internal debugging of the compiler’s parser. The user should not have to use this option unless filing a bug report. It is mainly for the developers.

• -i, --intermediate: This option embeds the intermediate code generated by the compiler into the assembly outputs as comments. This can be used by the user to view how the compiler generates code for the VIC™ statements and by the developer for debugging code generation.

• -o <FILE>, --output <FILE>: This option tells the compiler to save the output to the FILE argument provided. If the filename ends with .asm the compiler only compiles to assembly. If the filename ends with .hex or anything else, the compiler will compile to assembly and also try to link it to create a binary hex file to be programmed onto the chip. However, if gputils is not installed, only the compilation to assembly will take place. If the user does not provide this option the compiler prints the assembly output to the screen(stdout).

• -p <MCU Target>, --pic <MCU Target>: This is the most useful of all options where the user can compile a code written for one type of Microchip’s PIC® MCU target for a different MCU target. This enables the user to achieve the following goals:

  1. allow for code reuse between MCUs, allowing compilation to various targets
  2. verify if a piece of code can work on another Microchip’s PIC® MCU without reading that MCU’s data sheet
  3. find out the parts of the code which will not work on another MCU

• --simulate This has to be used along with the --output option defined above as it uses the compiled and linked file and starts the simulator gpsim or any other selected simulator with it. This allows the user to quickly run everything from the same executable vic without having to type the simulator’s commands directly.

• --supports <MCU Target>: This is similar to the -p option above except that it does not compile any code. It can be used by the user or any other external program to verify if a certain MCU target is supported by vic. If it is not supported, the code cannot be compiled to that target.

• --list-features <MCU Target>: This is similar to the --supports option above except that it also lists the features supported by the chip. This automatically turns on the --supports option.

• --chip-pinout <MCU Target>: This option draws the pin diagram of the chip on the terminal that it has been invoked in. This allows for the user to quickly see how the pins are arranged on a particular chip and what their names are, as per feature.

Here is an example of the pin diagram of the PIC16F631 chip.

                           +======__======+
                    Vdd ---|1           20|--- Vss
                           |              |
   RA5/T1CKI/OSC1/CLKIN ---|2           19|--- RA0/C1N+/ICSPDAT/ULPWU
                           |              |
    RA4/T1G/OSC2/CLKOUT ---|3           18|--- RA1/C12IN0-/ICSPCLK
                           |              |
           RA3/MCLR/Vpp ---|4           17|--- RA2/T0CKI/INT/C1OUT
                           |              |
                    RC5 ---|5           16|--- RC0/C2IN+
                           |              |
                           |   P16F631    |
                           |              |
              RC4/C2OUT ---|6           15|--- RC1/C12IN1-
                           |              |
            RC3/C12IN3- ---|7           14|--- RC2/C12IN2-
                           |              |
                    RC6 ---|8           13|--- RB4
                           |              |
                    RC7 ---|9           12|--- RB5
                           |              |
                    RB7 ---|10          11|--- RB6
                           |              |
                           +==============+

• --list-gputils: This option lets the user know where the gpasm and gplink tools are located on the current system for the gputils package. The vic compiler checks the system install paths as well as any installs done by Alien::gputils.

• --no-hex: The vic compiler automatically looks for gpasm and gplink to create the appropriate .hex file for use by the pk2cmd or other programming software. If the user does not want to generate the .hex file then they should use this option. This is especially useful if gputils is installed and the user does not want to compile the .hex file.

Based on these options here are some sample examples on how to use them:

# to print the compiler version
$ vic -V
# to print the help message
$ vic -h
# to compile to a hex file
$ vic -o helloworld.hex helloworld.vic
# to compile to assembly
$ vic -o helloworld.asm helloworld.vic
# to compile to a hex file but override the chip in the code
$ vic -p p16f631 -o helloworld.hex helloworld.vic
# to compile only to assembly with intermediate code and not to a hex file
$ vic -i -o helloworld.asm helloworld.vic
$ vic -i -o helloworld.hex --no-hex helloworld.vic
# to compile to a hex file and simulate the code
$ vic -o helloworld.hex --simulate helloworld.vic
# to list the chips supported
$ vic --list-chips
# to list the simulators supported
$ vic --list-simulators
# to check if the chip is supported
$ vic --supports P12F683
# to list the chip's features
$ vic --list-chip-features P16F685
# to print the chip's pin diagram
$ vic --chip-pinout P16F631
# to print the locations of the gputils tools
$ vic --list-gputils

Now that we have learned enough about using the vic compiler, let us move on to studying the various available in-built functions for VIC™.