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AppNote - PROP002

Installing Brad's Spin Tool (BST) with Propeller Basic
on Mac OSX

Brad Campbell of Perth, Western Australia has created a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, and Linux) Spin Tool equivalent to Parallax's Windows-only Propeller Tool. In late January 2010 Brad collaborated with Terry Hitt ("Bean") and brought Bean's Propeller Basic Compiler (Basic to PASM) into this cross-platform arena. Now this is the second Appnote I have written on the installation, the first was pre-PropBasic.

* * Caution * * - Please read this whole tutorial all the way through before starting to install the BST/PropBasic set of tools. There are a few rough edges that come about when coding for cross platform compatibilties for three different Windows packages (XP, Vista, 7), two different Mac OSX (pre-Leopard and Leopard/Snow Leopard), and the many flavors of Linux. There is one OSX rough edge that can be avoided if you will remember one thing, the first time that you are asked to execute the bst.app in the instructions below, do so by directly double clicking on the bst.app, do the various preference settings, the cmd-Q - quit - the app. Doing this will clear a flag that otherwise will throw spin and pbas files into an OSX Error Console instead of a bst edit window

First we need identify the pieces; that is Brad's code and, then we need the Parallax font and the core spin objects from the Propeller Tool

We will start with Brad's tools. The links below will take you to open directories where you can directly downlaod the desired files. The latest stable version is clearly indicated and you want to select the file with "OSX" in the filename.

• bstl- The command line loader
  

  This application allows you to load pre-compiled .binary and .eeprom files into your Propeller. It is a command line (Terminal) application that takes optional parameters and a file name. You do not really need to download this for a straight BST installation. It's functionality is implicit within the BST GUI IDE.
  

• bstc - The command line compiler
  

  This application is a completely Parallax syntax compatible SPIN and PASM compiler and linker. In addition to being able to compile and load a Propeller, it has a few additional features often requested by users (like being able to emit a list file, some basic optimisation, and zip file generation) You do not really need to download this for a straight BST installation. It's functionality is implicit within the BST GUI IDE.
  

• bst - The GUI IDE
  

  This application is a fairly complete Graphic User Interface based Integrated Development Environment that aims to be eventually comparable and compatible with the Parallax Propeller Tool. BST is structured to be a work-alike to the Parallax Propeller Tool so that new users will find the Parallax documentation familiar enough to be able to start from scratch without being plunged into an unfamiliar environment.

• PropBasic - The command line Propeller Basic compiler
  

  This application is a minor rewrite to Bean's original command line compiler called by his original IDE. Brad modified it as needed to work under BST.

Note - the btsc and bstl binaries from Brad's Spin Tools suite are delivered named "bstl.osx" and "bstc.osx". When you place them someplace in your path, say, "/usr/local/bin", you mights as well rename them trimming the ".osx" off. You are not likely to have a different platform executable hanging around! So they become "bstl" and "bstc" and easier to type. Note also that they are not needed for running the bst.app GUI IDE.

The entire lashup for the installation can be gotten by downloadiing a single file, PropBST-PB4-Mac.zip (11.3 MBytes). I took a Windows installation of the Propeller Tool (current version 1.2.7) from my Bootcamp partition and made a copy on the Mac side. I then created a folder called "Propeller" with a sub-directory called "libraries". Into that directory I moved all of the spin objects. Then add to that the two folders labeled "Examples" and "Help". I then I placed into the main folder a special copy of the Parallax TrueType Font specifically for the Mac. Pay particular note of the font file size of 53 KB. If you somehow mix in the original Parallax Windows font file it will be over 1 MB. The wrong font file will screw up the BST IDE Editor. Last, I added the two binaries, BST, bst.app, and PropBasic, renamed to pb-bst. That folder looks like this

A partial view of "libraries" looks like this

Now we need to install the Parallax font. Once again, check that the font file size is 53 KB. Now double-click on "Parallax.ttf" which should produce the screen below. Click on the button "Install Font" and then quit the Font Book application.

We will now bring up the BST IDE. Double-click on the bst.app and goto Tools -> Compiler Preferences, select "add" and set the path to your "libraries" folder.

Next goto Tools -> IDE Preferences, select "PropBasic", then click "Browse" and set the path to your PropBasic executable (pb-bst).

Now goto Tools -> IDE Preferences and we willl set the Editor pathes. Select "add" and set the path to your private space, to the sample libraries in "Examples" and, for convenience, to the BST compiler core spin objects. "Default" is the defaulted name for each added path but you select that text entry box and make it more meaningful.

There is one thing left to do. If you have not already done so, you need to install the FTDI USB driver for the Propeller Plug/Clip. The Parallax webpage mentioned earlier has links for the FTDI drivers. You now should be ready to go!

Random Shots

QUESTION: What if you have a ".binary" or a ".eeprom" file to download using the GUI IDE?

Answer #1: Using the drop down selector for file type (just above the "INS") select "binary" or a "eeprom". Work you way down the file tree until the desired file shows and then double-click on it. Then select RAM or EEPROM and off you go.

Answer #2: Using the File->Open navigation find the file you want and open it. The download type window will open. Then select RAM or EEPROM and off you go.