Software Tools

Developing your code requires two things:

The development environment is the software used to write and compile the code. This may be a composite environment known as an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) or it may just be the compiler. A compiler can be stand-alone, however as with the MPLAB IDE the compiler forms part of the environment either as a tool or a plugin.

MPLAB® X Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a software program that runs on a PC (Windows®, macOS®, Linux®) to develop applications for Microchip PIC® microcontrollers and dsPIC® digital signal controllers.

MPLAB IDE is freely available from Microchip.

A compiler supports the source programming language reads the files, analyzes the code, and translates it into a format suitable for the target platform. In this case, we recommend the use of the compilers supplied by MIkroelektronika. They offer three language choices, namely C, BASIC, and Pascal.

Mikroe has been investing in a new generation product branded as Necto, which combines all the compilers into a single environment.

Learn about the two options here:

You may also be interested in LDmicro, but this is specifically for automation projects.

When you have developed your code, the next step is to program the target device. Many developers will code and test incrementally, and the best way to test your code is to run it on the target hardware or an approximation of the final board.

There is simulation software available that enables a developer to develop and run the code virtually. These packages have come a long way and offer near-to real-life approximation of the final system.

Microchip supplied the PICKIT which is their proprietary system to program a PIC. One of these is required for development. Learn more here Programming the Device

When developing an embedded application, if a one-person team you may find that you are doing everything. During this process, you are developing a hardware platform to run the application code, and your skill and abilities need to be both software and hardware-capable.