XCore Exchange

Hi!

I **think** I got it to work.

But first, be aware that I havent used the IDE since 7 years! Yes, seven. I'm not able to check if everything works. But at least, I can start xTimeComposer and get some useable screens. Haven't tried anything more.
So use at your own risk!

OK, the whole process is a bit odd and the result is a bit inconvenient.

First download the JDK (I didn't get it working with the JRE).
Navigate into the xtimecomposer.app (you have to open the app folder, you can't just click on it). and navigate to:
Applications/XMOS_xTIMEcomposer.../xtimecomposer_bin/xtimecomposer.app/Contents
Here, you find a file "info.plist". Open it with you editor.
Quite at the end, you will find somethig that reads like:

<!-- to use a specific Java version (instead of the platform's default) uncomment one of the following options:
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java</string>
-->
Change that to:
<!-- to use a specific Java version (instead of the platform's default) uncomment one of the following options:
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.4.2/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Commands/java</string>
<string>-vm</string><string>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/1.8.0.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java</string>
-->
<string>-vm</string><string>/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_152.jdk/Contents/Home/bin</string>

Verify the path given! Best c&p it and open a terminal and execute the command there. You should get a response from the JRE.
You need to append"java" to the path. So the command including the path is:
/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_152.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java
You don't have to be in any specific directory to execute the command.

That was the modificates you had to do once.

Now, how to start xTIMEcomposer. You can not simply click on the icon, or you will get the Java Version 6 nonsense again.
You have to open a terminal window and navigate to this path:
Applications/XMOS_xTIMEcomposer.../xtimecomposer_bin/xtimecomposer.app/Contents/MacOS
Here, you'd should find a file xtimecomposer.command.
Type:
bash xtimecomposer.command
xTIMEcomposer should start fine. If you do get that JAVA V6 message again, your path in the info.plist is wrong.

Maybe someone finds a better way.
And again, I didn't verify anything in depth. Right now, I'm just happy that I got it started.
And maybe some other users can confirm the fix.

Nick

Why not download the most current toolchain (14.3.2) from the xmos website?

https://www.xmos.com/support/tools

Why not read the whole thread?

Nick

Hi Nick, thanks a lot, your howto works very well, just a bit boring to "bash" time :)

Hi Fabricio!

Glad that helped!
In the meantime, I used xTIMEcomposer for some time. Things seem to work (but I still didn't use every feature!).
The editor is a bit picky, it looks. If I mark a bigger portion of text (say 50 lines or so) and want to cut it with cmd-X, the editor crashes.

So do frequent saves!

Hint for the one to fix this:
It simply has to do with the way the Java engine is started. And I do know, that the current Java version does work on the Mac. Microchip's MPLAB-X does use Java with netbeans. What they do, is to include the whole JRE with the download and install it in their app folder. Looks to be the most stable way.

Again: There is no way to install Java 6 on the current Mac-OS. Apple quit supporting Java directly years ago, as they were pi**ed with the monthly fixes from Oracle.
And Apple gave up on providing their Java framework for application programming for MacOS. It was a pain. Trust me!


Nick

Hi - recently xTc 14.3.2 has been crashing all the time for me on recent macOS (now on latest 10.13.2).

As described, cut/paste of any significant amount of text crashes. Also frequently crashes on build (due to file save? Often loses all the edits unless I manually save each file before the build), especially pretty well every time I cycle around execute / edit / build. This is really bad, XMOS must be aware as it is getting close to unusable. I know xTc does not officially support recent OSes but we can't be expected to use ancient OS releases, especially with all the recent security alerts. But we seriously must have an update soon that works reliably again.

The fix described above looks like a real pain - there has to be an update to 14.3.2 to address the issue!

Mike

mikek wrote:Hi - recently xTc 14.3.2 has been crashing all the time for me on recent macOS (now on latest 10.13.2).
...
The fix described above looks like a real pain - there has to be an update to 14.3.2 to address the issue!
Mike

I totally agree. I have been looking at the XMOS tools page once a week during the past months to see if there is a new version that addresses this. So far only patience helps!

I work with the older OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 only so that I can get xTIMEcomposer 14.3.2 to work. As described previously in this thread I downgraded.

On the machine where I have with High Sierra I only use XFLASH that I run from the command line in terminal [1].

[1] http://www.teigfam.net/oyvind/home/tech ... m_terminal

I certainly will not downgrade my OS.

One more thing worth considering:
Exclipse **does work** on Mac-OS. Right out of the box. For me, it looks like it is only the way the JRE-environment is started is wrong in xTC. Oracle has documentation how to do it.

Nick

Thanks for the extra comments Nick et al. I'm surprised there isn't more pressure on XMOS to fix it.

At the moment I am coping with the crashing as I am getting into the habit of manually saving every edit and I'm only putting small touches onto an almost finished project. Breaking off to research a fix always seems not quite worth it.

One thing - you used to be able to keep xTc in the dock for quick launch. The latest 14.3.2 doesn't seem to work that way so I use a desktop link (I normally like to keep my desktop clear). It doesn't run from Launchpad either. Does that suggest there is something odd about the way it launches?

Mike