Suggested Mac OSX dev tools

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nhbubba
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Suggested Mac OSX dev tools

Post by nhbubba »

MightyOhm (and all other Mac user and OpenWRT hackers),

Discovered your site via your wifi_radio project a few weeks ago. Utterly impressed by the quality of your work and attention to detail, particularly regarding your documentation. Thanks for this resource!

I've picked up a WL-520gU and have high hopes of (successfully) hacking it.

I was watching your very well done talk at NOTACON and noticed that you were developing using a Mac laptop. I recently purchased my first-ever mac laptop and am curious if you have any recommendations for tools? I notice you use ZTerm. Any other pointers? Any advice on tftp daemons/services?

Thanks!
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mightyohm
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Re: Suggested Mac OSX dev tools

Post by mightyohm »

nhbubba,

Zterm is great (but somewhat old now). I still use it.

OSX comes with a lot of useful tools (such as ssh, ftp, and tftp) already builtin - this is one of the great things about OSX (it is built on UNIX).

I would install Xcode (it comes on the DVD that ships with every Mac) since you'll probably need some tool that comes with it at some point.

Macports (http://www.macports.org/) and fink (http://www.finkproject.org/) provide OSX versions of many more UNIX tools. Compiling them can be tricky (and time consuming) but generally I have been happy.

I use TextWrangler a lot, it is a very nice text editor. http://www.barebones.com/products/TextWrangler/

While I have compiled OpenWrt images using OSX, I highly recommend using a Linux virtual machine (or a physical computer running Ubuntu or Debian). You can get Virtualbox for free from http://www.virtualbox.org/ and install the latest version of Ubuntu. The reason for doing this is that OpenWrt was created with Linux in mind, so the compile process will go more smoothly. In addition, OSX is not case sensitive by default, which causes additional problems. I have been able to compile OpenWrt directly on OSX before, but it was very time consuming to fix all of the minor problems along the way.

My observation over the past 2-3 years has been that each OS (OSX, Windows, Linux) has strengths and weaknesses, and rather than pick one, it is best to be comfortable in all three. :geek:

Best of luck with your new Mac. :D
nhbubba
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Mar 24, 2010 6:10 am
Location: Southern NH

Re: Suggested Mac OSX dev tools

Post by nhbubba »

Good stuff! Thanks.

I am a software dev by trade; mostly for windows, but fairly harmful on linux these days as well. Fortunately I have a (linux) fileserver in the basement that can do my dirty work. I'll just look to the mac to do the device interfacing.

I will check out those tools you pointed out.

Have my shiny new WL-520gU next to me fresh from the Egg. The surgery begins tonight! Here goes 35-bucks..


On a side note, your project also introduced me to the AVR megaAVR MCUs and particularly the Audrino ... do we call it the Audrino 'platform'?! I haven't seen any Atmel stuff since college and have never been too keen on PICs. A few (dozen) web pages later and I couldn't help but to order a board and parts for a programmer. I've had a pair of 2x16 character displays in my parts box for way too long that I've been desperate to do something with.

Advice on tools and software on that front would be welcomed too.
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mightyohm
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Re: Suggested Mac OSX dev tools

Post by mightyohm »

Excellent!

I highly recommend CrossPack for AVR for the Mac. A single download will set up pretty much everything you need to get started developing C programs for AVR microcontrollers.

http://www.obdev.at/products/crosspack/index-de.html

I use CrossPack and I have been very happy with it.
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