AVR MacPack: AVR development on Mac

[christian]

We have created a binary distribution of AVR GCC and associated tools for all Mac users. The package offers both, GCC version 3 and 4 because version 3 generates more efficient code. All software is compiled as universal binaries for Intel and PowerPC Macs.

See http://www.obdev.at/avrmacpack/ for more information.

[qubit]

Brilliant! It installed perfectly for me. Congratulations on the project.

Just one question: What is the deal with gcc3 creating smaller code? I tried it and indeed gcc3 makes smaller code for the few projects i tried. So do you recommend using gcc3?

[christian]

It's a matter of personal preference. Newer versions are not always better.

I, personally, prefer gcc 3 because of the somewhat smaller code and because I'm used to its behavior (which warnings are on by default and so on).

On the other hand, new features are only added to gcc 4. If you want any of these, you probably want gcc 4. In some situations, gcc 4 generates even more efficient code than gcc 3 and there is hope that code generation will be improved in the future.

[andrewbenson]

This is really well put together. Thanks!
I particularly like the way you can switch over to gcc 3 for tighter code compiling, and the automatic creation of the project files.

This is the first packaging of AVR dev stuff for Mac that I has got me seriously considering doing my AVR development on the Mac side.

Andrew

[aerodiver]

Nice install, works great from the command line, but when using XCode 3 the PATH is missing for make. When clicking Build in XCode avr-gcc is not found.

Adding a PATH variable to the build target and ticking "pass build settings in environment" works.
PATH = "/usr/local/AVRMacPack/bin/:$PATH"



Is there a way I can configure XCode or your templates to set the PATH to avr-gcc by default?


Thanks,
Paul

[christian]

Yes, I just found that out yesterday! We will release a new version with a fixed template soon.

If you want to fix your template, load the template project at /usr/local/AVRMacPack/etc/templates/TemplateProject and change it. You may have to be root in order to edit the template.