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Re: [dsdp-dd-dev] Editor technology subgroup

still ... there was other prior art (i can think of one IDE i was associated with that had a "mixed" mode that sounds identical to the TI offering, right down to the language of the 2002 patent ... an IDE which had this integrated facility as far back as 1998) ...

i'll grant that it's not all that surprising that the u.s. patent office saw fit to grant a software patent for something like this despite the probable prior art.

i guess the reason i'm following on to this thread is that i wonder what the eclipse organization's stance would be on this or any other patent for which it believed prior art existed. let's say a patent popped up for breakpoint buttons beside source-lines. does the eclipse organization have enough of a vested interest to go to bat on keeping such a thing? enough clout? where is the line drawn?

i'm not at all trying to pick a fight here with chris or TI, but this mixed assembly view does provide a good example. let's say eclipse users overwhelmingly want a mixed-mode in an editor window, and we know it's not rocket-science to implement this. let's say only for the sake of argument for the moment that TI is not so willing to just grant usage rights to this particular patent to eclipse.org. will the eclipse org cave to the precedent of the TI patent? if so, i guess chris's original point has a lot of bearing on the direction eclipse contributors are going to pursue with simultaneous source/assembly debugging.

++ kirk


Recoskie, Chris wrote:
Yeah the reasons for putting it in the same editor window were somewhat
ephemeral IMO.  In CCS, once you switch into what we call "Mixed Mode"
you are disallowed from editing the code so you pretty much lose most of
the benefit of it being in the editor.

There are a few nice things though.  It syncs your cursor position when
you switch back and forth between modes so it's easy to look up the
instructions for a given line of C code and then go back to editing the
C source.  Since it's linked to an editor it also picks up the syntax
highlighting from the editor for the C source statements.

The disassembly is refreshed based on changes to target memory but no
round-trip hot swapping of code unfortunately.  That *would* be cool :-)

___________________________________________
Chris Recoskie
Software Designer
Texas Instruments, Toronto
http://eclipse.org/cdt
-----Original Message-----
From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Doug Schaefer
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 2:18 PM
To: Device Debugging developer discussions
Subject: RE: [dsdp-dd-dev] Editor technology subgroup

Well, the Using Visual C++ 5 book that I have in front of me right
now,
copyright 1997, shows their Disassembly View which interleaves source
and
disassembly.

Mind you it's a view and not an editor. But then, why would you edit
in
this
window? Does the assembly get updated based on the source changes you
make?
Can you edit the assembly and have the source updated? (That'd be
cool,
BTW
:).

What was the original use case again?

Cheers,
Doug Schaefer, QNX Software Systems
Eclipse CDT Project Lead, Tools PMC member
http://cdtdoug.blogspot.com


-----Original Message-----
From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Recoskie, Chris
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 1:30 PM
To: Device Debugging developer discussions
Subject: RE: [dsdp-dd-dev] Editor technology subgroup

I'm guessing the person I was talking to was referring to US patent #
6,493,868.  Like I said I'm not a patent lawyer so I'm not going to
comment as to whether or not it is truly applicable or not.  It seems
very broad and I'm not sure of the rules as to how it does or does not
apply to specific features in IDEs.

Anyway take a look and due your due diligence.  It may be a non issue.


=====================


United States Patent  6,493,868
DaSilva ,   et al.  December 10, 2002


------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Integrated development tool


Abstract
An integrated code development tool, comprising of an editor, a
project
management and build system, a debugger, a profiler, and a graphical
data visualization system. The editor is operable to provide a source
code view which is simultaneously capable of integrating with said
debugger to provide for stepping through code and setting breakpoints,
and integrating with the output of said build system to display source
code interleaved with corresponding assembler code created by said
build
system.


___________________________________________

Chris Recoskie
Software Designer
Texas Instruments, Toronto
http://eclipse.org/cdt



-----Original Message-----
From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Cortell
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 11:51 AM
To: Device Debugging developer discussions
Subject: RE: [dsdp-dd-dev] Editor technology subgroup

If this is true, it's extremely surprising. Interleaved
source/disassemble is a staple in many debuggers. How a company
would
go about successfully patenting the implementation of such a feature
in an open source product is puzzling, to say the least.
Copyrighting
an implementation is one thing; patenting the idea is another story.

John

At 10:28 AM 5/10/2006, Recoskie, Chris wrote:
A caveat:

I have heard that TI holds a patent on showing interleaved
source/disassembly in the editor window (but not in other windows,
so
the current Disassembly View does not infringe this patent as I
understand it).  I don't think it would be any sort of problem to
get
this patent licensed royalty-free to Eclipse for such a feature,
but
it
is an IP issue that will have to go through due diligence for sure.

Disclaimer:  I am not a patent lawyer and I have no authority to
license
the aforementioned patent, if it exists, on behalf of TI.

___________________________________________

Chris Recoskie
Software Designer
Texas Instruments, Toronto
http://eclipse.org/cdt



-----Original Message-----
From: dsdp-dd-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:dsdp-dd-dev-
bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Cortell
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 9:19 AM
To: Device Debugging developer discussions;
dsdp-dd-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [dsdp-dd-dev] Editor technology subgroup

Ewa,

What are the BV bug numbers? They're not Bugzilla reports from
what I
can
tell.

I entered a bugzilla report for "Jump to Line" a while back

         https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=118147


We are also very interested in mixed disassembler/source mode
debugging. It seems this would be best implemented if indeed all
three modes are provided in the editor. Your suggested approach
seems
feasible to me; the debugger could generate files on the fly.
The
trick would be to make that  approach look natural to the user,
so
he's not aware that he's looking at a temporary file.

John


At 08:46 PM 5/9/2006, Ewa Matejska wrote:
Hi,

I'm soliciting ideas for enhancements to the Editor to  improve
the
embedded development experience.

Possible ideas are:

1. Add the "Jump to Line" option the editor margin menu.
BV118147.
2. Merge the Disassembly view into the Editor.  This could be
achieved in having a special read-only debug file for each
debug
session whose state would toggle between source, disassembly
and
mixed in some way. Related bug is BV39644.

These ideas will be captured at:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/DSDP/DD/Editor

Chris Recoskie, as the lead of the Disassembly View, what do
you
think of idea#2?

Thank You,
Ewa.
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