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Code Composer unreliable? Crashes? Lock-ups? Annoying, unexplained behavior?

Peddler
Intellectual 365 points

I've been using CC for several weeks and I've been plagued by an endless series of problems.  Yes, I've re-installed and upgraded to the latest version of CC.  I'm running on a 1-month old Asus laptop with the latest Win7 (not my choice) and it's an extremely clean, bare-bones system.  Please, are there any other users on this forum who are having similar experiences or is it just me?  In a nutshell,

* I can't reliably monitor variables.  A high percentage of locally defined variables just don't appear in any of the variable monitoring panes (local or global) when they should.

* the tool does a "debug" after I tell it to "build" - why?  While this can be convenient at times, shouldn't there be a pref to control this behavior?

* breakpoints disappear or become inoperative to the point where the tool must be shut down (or terminated with task mgr) to fix them

* it throws hard errors, crashes or locks up several times a day resulting in loss of source code and workspace configuration setup

* it regularly creates redundant editor panes/tabs with extra, confusing copies of files I'm editing (the debugger or build tool seems to be the culprit)

* similarly, it mysteriously closes down file editor panes for no reason

* debug ties the system up for 30 sec while it works, even for tiny programs.  That's roughly 50 million x86 instructions required to create each byte of MSP430 object code.  Think about how insane this is. 20 years ago we had faster tools.  What's the world come to?

* while a debug is working, it locks me out.  In fact, for most of this time, it doesn't provide any sign that it's actually doing anything.  The main app window banner even says "not responding" a few times.  If I try to click a menu item or pull-down menu while this "debug" process is happening, Win7 will either not respond or will beep and/or the screen will flash and/or turn white and the tool locks up (says not responding) in some cases and must be terminated using the task manager.

Even this forum is giving me problems.  There's no cursor in the Post editor with the latest Firefox under Win7.  And the editor seems to insist on double-spacing all paragraphs. What sane person would want an editor to do that?

If you have any doubts, look at this Code Composer Error Log.  This is a typical workday for me.  Take a close look at the time stamps. 

 

Why am I bothering to post so many gripes on this forum?  My employer is forcing me to use CC versus IAR,  I feel it's costing me so much time and grief, it's worth my time to write a good rant if there's any chance it'll make my work go faster or more smoothly.  Not to mention create an incentive for TI to make improvements.

 

 

 

 

  • TI__Guru**** 482451 points

    Hello Chris,

    Chris35513 said:
    * I can't reliably monitor variables.  A high percentage of locally defined variables just don't appear in any of the variable monitoring panes (local or global) when they should.

    The only time I've seen this is when people are trying to debug optimized code. You can try adding the variable to Watch view and see if it appears there. If it does, then it is the Locals view that is having some issue.

    Chris35513 said:
    * the tool does a "debug" after I tell it to "build" - why?  While this can be convenient at times, shouldn't there be a pref to control this behavior?

    There seems to be a separate thread on this issue: http://e2e.ti.com/support/development_tools/code_composer_studio/f/81/t/85071.aspx

    Chris35513 said:
    * breakpoints disappear or become inoperative to the point where the tool must be shut down (or terminated with task mgr) to fix them

    CCS will try to restore breakpoints set from a previous debug session. This can cause issues if the program has changed and the breakpoint locations are no longer relevant. CCS should then disable the breakpoints though.

    Chris35513 said:
    * it throws hard errors, crashes or locks up several times a day resulting in loss of source code and workspace configuration setup

    Chris35513 said:
    * it regularly creates redundant editor panes/tabs with extra, confusing copies of files I'm editing (the debugger or build tool seems to be the culprit)

    I'm not sure how this would be happening. Maybe CCS is picking up multiple versions of files of the same name. Or if you are looking at the local history of the file , you can have multiple copies of the file appear.

    Chris35513 said:
    * similarly, it mysteriously closes down file editor panes for no reason

    CCS will flip between perspectives as you go from build to debug (and back). This would explain the UI changing on you.

    Chris35513 said:
    * debug ties the system up for 30 sec while it works, even for tiny programs.  That's roughly 50 million x86 instructions required to create each byte of MSP430 object code.  Think about how insane this is. 20 years ago we had faster tools.  What's the world come to?

    CCS is definitely a large application, designed to support many many different devices, and it comes with a lot of "bells and whistles" in terms of features. Because of this, there is a trade off in terms of size and performance. Lightweight... CCS definitely is not. But there are other good lightweight tools for MSP430. You mentioned IAR. If you are looking for a lightweight tool for MSP430, that is a good choice and something you may want to revisit.

    Chris35513 said:
    * while a debug is working, it locks me out.  In fact, for most of this time, it doesn't provide any sign that it's actually doing anything.  The main app window banner even says "not responding" a few times.  If I try to click a menu item or pull-down menu while this "debug" process is happening, Win7 will either not respond or will beep and/or the screen will flash and/or turn white and the tool locks up (says not responding) in some cases and must be terminated using the task manager.

    Chris35513 said:
    Even this forum is giving me problems.  There's no cursor in the Post editor with the latest Firefox under Win7.  And the editor seems to insist on double-spacing all paragraphs. What sane person would want an editor to do that?

    Yes I use Firefox and this is a pet peeve of mine too. You have to click on another browser tab, then click back to see the cursor. There are a variety of formatting issues. Something I have requested to get fixed also. Definitely raise the issue here: http://e2e.ti.com/support/general/default.aspx

    In regards to your issues on stability - if you are not on the latest version of CCS, make sure you update. There have been several service patches of CCSv4, each with many fixes.

    Also you check out the Troubleshooting Guide for some tips on cleaning up your environment to improve stability and to resolve errors

    If updating and the troubleshooting guide does not help, any reproducible test cases you can provide to help us reproduce the issue would be very helpful for us to fix them.

    Thanks for your feedback

    ki