Overview

The mikroBASIC for 8051 Compiler is a powerful feature-rich development tool for Atmel's 8051 microcontrollers. It is designed to provide the user with the easiest possible solution for developing applications for embedded systems without compromising on performance. Its highly advanced integrated development environment (IDE), broad set of library routines, ready-to-run and comprehensive documentation should be more than enough to get anyone off to a great start when developing 8051 applications.

Features

• Advanced code editor to aid in the writing of source code.
• Included libraries covering communications, data acquisition, displays and much more dramatically speed up development.
• Code explorer allows you to monitor your program's structure, variables and functions.
• Generates commented, human-readable assembly language files and HEX files compatible with any Atmel 8051 programmer.
• Integrated simulator lets you inspect program flow and debug executable code.

Code Editor

mikroBASIC's code editor is an advanced text editor fashioned to satisfy the needs of professionals. Advanced editor features include adjustable syntax highlighting, code assistant offering an auto-complete function, auto-correction of common typos, the ability to comment/uncomment a block of code with single mouse-click and bookmarks that can be set to aid navigation through even the largest program code.

Code Explorer/Quick Help/Keyboard Shortcuts

To the left of the main window area a pane contains mikroBASIC's code explorer, quick help and keyboard shortcuts tabs.
The code explorer tab provides a clear view of every declared item within the source code and from here you can jump to the declarations of those items.
The quick help tab lists all the available built-in library functions as a helpful reference.
Finally, the keyboard shortcuts tab lists all available keyboard shortcuts that may be used within mikroBASIC.

Simulator

The source-level debugger is an integral component of the mikroBASIC development environment and has been designed to simulate the operations of Atmel's 8051 microcontrollers to assist users in the debugging of their programs. The simulator simulates program flow and execution of instruction lines, although not operating in real-time it does not update timers, interrupt flags, etc.
Once you have successfully compiled your project, you can run the simulator allowing you to carry out operations such as single-stepping code and running the code to a cursor position.
A simulator watch window enables you to monitor program variables and registers of the 8051 with their values updated as you carry out simulation operations. Values changed as the simulation progresses are coloured red to clearly identify them. You can also edit values of variables and registers during the simulation process.
A stopwatch window is also provided for use when simulating to calculate the processor cycles and execution time since the last debugger action.
A view RAM window acts in a similar manner to the watch window and shows the contents of RAM, again with recently changed values highlighted in red and with the ability to manually change values.