Hi,
uglyoldbob wrote:Does anybody use any sort of developer software (something like kdevelop, MSVC, whatever) to develop their software?
I use KWrite to edit the text/source files (syntax highlighting) and a hierarchy of build scripts where the top level script starts scripts in each sub-directory (which start scripts in their sub-directories, etc). As part of this my own "build utility" is compiled (if necessary), and either make or my build utility is used within the other scripts to build each "part".
The build process creates binaries, disassembles, does hex dumps, finds debugging markers, auto-generates HTML pages, and creates a "tar.gz" package (ready to upload to my web host).
The top level build script is assigned to F12 as a keyboard shortcut (in KDE), so I can modify any of the files and press F12 to update everything. Emulators are assigned to other function keys - for e.g. "Bochs 80486" is assigned to F5, "Bochs Pentium" is assigned to F6, Qemu is assigned to F9, etc. I also use shift&F12 to view the Bochs log.
I also have some real machines here setup for network boot (which my OS supports). The build script copies any files into the TFTP directory ready for this, so I only need to press F12 then turn a machine on to see how my OS crashes..
I test my OS very frequently though - rather than writing something completely and then testing it completely, I'll write a little bit, test a little bit, write some more, test some more, etc (even if it's just code to display some results).
I remember back when my "write, build, test" cycle involved notepad, batch files and floppy disks, where I'd create a boot floppy every time I needed to test something - it's like trying to drive a car with the hand-brake on. Anything that makes your "write, build, test" cycle faster is worth investigating...
Cheers,
Brendan