paul_l_curtis:
We treat all evaluators and customers equally; however, we obviously have some users roll up at the helpdesk who haven’t ever bothered to register or pay for our product and this siphons our life blood (supporting a leech is not my idea of a great way to spend our cash).
Well, I would not have registered and gotten the evaluation license if I weren't serious about buying Crossworks. I have gotten too frustrated with the tools I have access too now, and want something I can depend on that has great support. I am on a fixed income, so am usually *very* careful where I spend my money, especially on software, because I have been burned a few times.
I have not heard anything bad about Crossworks though, and I like the way everything works in it.
I just don’t care for Eclipse as an IDE, but Crossworks works well for me, and I am going to dig into it deeper and learn how to use it better.
paul_l_curtis:
We could probably do more to detect JTAG failures. In fact I have implemented a STAPL compiler and player and it does a great job. I expect I’ll document the STAPL engine in an upcoming release of CrossWorks (it’s in the V2 builds now). Using STAPL you can probe your chain and see what’s up. I believe that this should resolve a number of customer’s problems with JTAG.
This sounds very nice! I am one of those that if you put a feature in, I will eventually use it if only to see what it does. :) I love to tinker!
paul_l_curtis:
Believe me, I wish I could get customers to purchase our hardware and software for an easy ride, but they don’t. They’d rather purchase something that’s not quite up to the job. The FT2232C-based devices might look good on paper, but they really are not the way to go if you want a professional product.
I'm affraid my purchase of the Olimex USB OCD Tiny was driven mostly by price. I am disabled and on a fixed income, so I don't have much to spend on stuff like this each month. I was fortunate that [[Alibre](http://www.alibre.com)(Alibre Design 3D CAD) has a direct purchase plan where I could pay for it over a 12 month period by a recurring charge to my debit card. I got the big package - Alibre Design Expert, which retails at $1995.00 (I paid only $1495.00 and got two years of maintenance instead of just one). I just got it paid for in September. :D
paul_l_curtis:
The CrossConnect Lite does an amazing job, you would not believe the amount of work that went into getting that thing up and ready. The new CrossConnect Pro is going to blow other competing devices away.
I do believe it. :) I have done electronic assembly, computer programming, as well as Q/A and Q/C. I always worked on the new product and prototype teams. I would like to see more software companies follow Alibre's lead on this direct purchase idea. I'll be purchasing a Personal License for Crossworks for ARM because I can't afford the Professional License. I have to get my agreement filled out and send it off to Rowley Associates.
paul_l_curtis:
I aspire being the “Apple” of the development tools world: having great software paired with great hardware for an unbeatable development experience. Unfortunately, the FTDI devices are the equivalent of a PC, they’re all the same and they’re all pretty much substandard. Just my view!
I know that one generally gets what one pays for, especially with hardware. I normally wait until I can afford the best I can get, but I did not do that this time. :( I was too eager to get to learning about ARM MCUs, and this is going to be part of the new brain for my current robot. I will have to check out the new CrossConnect when it is available. I am also looking at the [[Signalyzer Tool](http://www.xverve.com/development-tools/programming-tools/dt-usb-st---signalyzer-tool.html) to replace my Olimex unit. I not only want a solid development environment I can depend on to not cause more problems when debugging, but I NEED that. It's really hard to find and fix tough bugs if you don't trust your development environment.
I am also planning to jump into the AVR world at some point, and maybe even the MPS430 world. If the FREE tools don’t pan out for me, I will check out the Crossworks packages.
8-Dale](http://www.xverve.com/development-tools/programming-tools/dt-usb-st---signalyzer-tool.html)](http://www.alibre.com)