GBert / xc16plusplus

Unofficial C++ compiler for PIC24/dsPIC chips, based on XC16 source code

XC16++ release repository

Unofficial C++ compiler for PIC24 and dsPIC chips, based on the official XC16 compiler from Microchip. It is neither endorsed nor supported in any form by Microchip.

Download

Precompiled packages are available. They contain some executables that can be added to an existing XC16 installation to enable the C++ language (choose the one that matches your XC16 version). XC16++ precompiled executables, full source code and patches can be downloaded at https://github.com/fabio-d/xc16plusplus/releases.

Installation instructions are provided below in this document.

This repository (xc16plusplus) only contains source code in form of patches that can be applied to Microchip's official source code (available at Microchip's MPLAB-XC website under the Downloads Archive tab).

The same code, but in form of already-patched source trees is kept in the companion development xc16plusplus-source repository (there is one branch for each supported XC16 version).

About XC16 (the official Microchip compiler)

The official XC16 compiler is actually a modified gcc version targeting PIC24 and dsPIC chips. The XC16 distribution also includes other software, but what is important for our purposes is that since gcc is a GPLv3 project, the XC16 compiler sources are also covered by the GPLv3. They can be downloaded from Microchip's website (see previous section). The only officially supported language is C but, given that gcc also supports C++, it is possible to recompile gcc and enable g++!

It actually takes a little more effort to obtain a working C++ compiler, and this repository hosts some patches I created. The following section shows how to apply them to Microchip's XC16 source releases, compile and install the C++ compiler on top of an existing XC16 installation.

Note that it is not possible to ship a stand-alone C++ compiler that does not require an existing XC16 installation, because all Microchip-supplied header files, software libraries, linker scripts and even some pieces of the compiler infrastructure are proprietary.

Installation on top of an existing XC16 installation from binary packages

If you download a precompiled XC16++ package, you will find the following files in its bin/bin subdirectory:

• coff-cc1plus (Linux and OS X) or coff-cc1plus.exe (Windows)
• coff-g++ (Linux and OS X) or coff-g++.exe (Windows)
• elf-cc1plus (Linux and OS X) or elf-cc1plus.exe (Windows)
• elf-g++ (Linux and OS X) or elf-g++.exe (Windows)

They must be copied to the bin/bin directory of the main XC16 installation, whose path can vary according to how XC16 was installed. The default path is (assuming XC16 version 1.24):

• /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin (Linux)
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin\bin (Windows)
• /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin (OS X)

If you download a Linux or OS X package, the bin and bin/bin directories in the package also contain some symbolic links that must be copied to the corresponding XC16 installation directory, along with the main executables:

• bin/xc16-cc1plus (symlink to xc16-cc1)
• bin/xc16-g++ (symlink to xc16-gcc)
• bin/bin/coff-paplus (symlink to coff-pa)
• bin/bin/elf-paplus (symlink to elf-pa)

On Windows, you need Administrator rights in order to create symbolic links. Therefore, no symbolic links are included in Windows packages. Instead, a bin\create_xc16plusplus_symlinks.cmd is provided, which can be copied to XC16's bin directory and run as Administrator to automatically create the symbolic links directly on the target system. After creating the links, the script will show a confirmation message. You can delete it afterwards.

How to build the C++ compiler using src_build.sh

src_build.sh is the script that comes with the official XC16 source release. It has been slightly patched to make it possible to build the C++ compiler natively on each supported platform, as the following instructions show. I also wrote an alternative script, that is described in the next section, which is probably easier to use, especially under 64-bit Linux.

Linux

Important: Please note that I only test 32-bit builds and my experience is that it is not trivial to build XC16 as a 32-bit executable on a 64-bit Linux host using src_build.sh (for example, even with the CC='gcc -m32' option, libtool still tries to link 64-bit libraries during the build process on Fedora 22). Therefore, if you are on a 64-bit Linux OS, usage of the alternative xc16plusplus_only.sh script (see next section) is strongly recommended.

1. Install bison, flex, libstdc++-static and m4 as well as the standard set of build tools (incl. make, C and C++ compiler).
2. Download the official Microchip source code for your XC16 version and unpack it (e.g. unzip xc16-v1.24-src.zip)
3. Patch the source code using the patch file that is appropriate for your version, for example:

   cd /path/to/v1.24.src/
   patch -p1 < /path/to/xc16plusplus_1_24.patch

4. Run ./src_build.sh.
5. When the compilation process ends you will see some errors about libgcc, but they are expected. You should now have the following executables in your build tree under v1.24.src/install/bin/bin/, that must be copied to their final location:
   • coff-cc1plus → /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/coff-cc1plus
   • coff-g++ → /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/coff-g++
   • elf-cc1plus → /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/elf-cc1plus
   • elf-g++ → /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/elf-g++
6. Lastly, run the following commands:

   cd /opt/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/
   ln -s xc16-cc1 xc16-cc1plus
   ln -s xc16-gcc xc16-g++
   cd bin/
   ln -s coff-pa coff-paplus
   ln -s elf-pa elf-paplus

Windows

Windows executables can be compiled in Cygwin through MinGW. The resulting executables will not depend on any Cygwin or MinGW library and, therefore, can safely be copied to other systems. I only test 32-bit builds: even if you have 64-bit Windows, follow the following steps literally, so that you will obtain 32-bit executables.

1. Install Cygwin for 32-bit versions of Windows (even if your OS is 64-bit). In addition to the default packages, also select binary gcc-core, gcc-g++, mingw-gcc-core, mingw-gcc-g++, gettext-devel, autoconf, bison, flex and m4 in the package selection screen during the installation procedure (you can use the search box in the top-left corner of the installer screen to find them).
2. Download the official Microchip source code for your XC16 version and unpack it under C:\cygwin\home\yourusername\
3. Download the patch file that is appropriate for your version and save it under C:\cygwin\home\yourusername\
4. Open the Cygwin terminal and patch the source code using the patch file you downloaded, for example:

   cd v1.24.src/
   patch -p1 < ../xc16plusplus_1_24.patch

5. Run ./src_build.sh.
6. When the compilation process ends you will see some errors about libgcc, but they are expected. You should now have the following executables in your build tree under v1.24.src\install\bin\bin\ that must be copied to their final location:
   • coff-cc1plus.exe → C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin\bin\coff-cc1plus.exe
   • coff-g++.exe → C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin\bin\coff-g++.exe
   • elf-cc1plus.exe → C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin\bin\elf-cc1plus.exe
   • elf-g++.exe → C:\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin\bin\elf-g++.exe
7. Lastly, run the following commands in the Command Prompt (as administrator):

   cd "\Program Files (x86)\Microchip\xc16\v1.24\bin"
   mklink xc16-cc1plus.exe xc16-cc1.exe
   mklink "xc16-g++.exe" xc16-gcc.exe
   cd bin
   mklink coff-paplus.exe coff-pa.exe
   mklink elf-paplus.exe elf-pa.exe

   (if the mklink command is not available, you can simply copy files intead of linking them)

OS X

The official XC16 release targets OS X 10.5 and later. The 10.5 SDK is therefore required if you want to create executables that can be used on every system where XC16 itself can be executed. However, if you are only interested in being able to run the C++ compiler on your computer, any SDK will do (but a small manual edit to build_XC16_451 will be necessary). In both cases, keep in mind that I only test 32 builds, so make sure you always set -arch i386 at step 4.

1. Install the command line tools. As of OS X 10.9 it is as easy as running xcode-select --install from the terminal and following the instructions. For older OS X version, please refer to the Install Xcode section of the MacPorts manual.
2. Download the official Microchip source code for your XC16 version and unpack it (e.g. unzip xc16-v1.24-src.zip)
3. Patch the source code using the patch file that is appropriate for your version, for example:

   cd /path/to/v1.24.src/
   patch -p1 < /path/to/xc16plusplus_1_24.patch

4. This is the SDK selection step. Open build_XC16_451 in a text editor, scroll to the line

   EXTRA_CFLAGS="-arch i386 -isysroot /Developer/SDKs/MacOSX10.5.sdk -mmacosx-version-min=10.5"

   and edit it as needed. Unless you are trying to make a portable executable, it is probably easiest to use your system's default SDK, so change it to just

   EXTRA_CFLAGS="-arch i386"

5. Run ./src_build.sh.
6. When the compilation process ends you will see some errors about libiconv, but they are expected. You should now have the following executables in your build tree under v1.24.src/install/bin/bin/, that must be copied to their final location:
   • coff-cc1plus → /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/coff-cc1plus
   • coff-g++ → /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/coff-g++
   • elf-cc1plus → /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/elf-cc1plus
   • elf-g++ → /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/bin/elf-g++
7. Lastly, run the following commands:

   cd /Applications/microchip/xc16/v1.24/bin/
   ln -s xc16-cc1 xc16-cc1plus
   ln -s xc16-gcc xc16-g++
   cd bin/
   ln -s coff-pa coff-paplus
   ln -s elf-pa elf-paplus

How to build the C++ compiler using xc16plusplus_only.sh

This is an alternative build script that I wrote to automatically cross-compile the C++ compiler for all supported platforms under Linux. It has only been tested on Fedora 22, but there is no reason why it should not work on other Linux distros.

I use this script to generate precompiled packages for all platforms (see scripts/make_release.sh) on 32-bit Fedora 22.

I recommend to use this script instead of src_build.sh when building a compiler for Linux on 64-bit Linux.

1. Install bison, flex, m4, make and the compiler that is appropriate for the OS you want to cross-compile for:
   • A regular Linux gcc compiler if you want to build a compiler that runs on Linux;
   • mingw32-gcc if you want to build a compiler that runs on Windows;
   • osxcross if you want to build a compiler that runs on OS X (use the MacOSX10.5.sdk SDK).
2. Download the official Microchip source code for your XC16 version and unpack it (e.g. unzip xc16-v1.24-src.zip)
3. Patch the source code using the patch file that is appropriate for your version, for example:

   cd /path/to/v1.24.src/
   patch -p1 < /path/to/xc16plusplus_1_24.patch

4. Run xc16plusplus_only.sh passing the name of the OS you want to cross-compile for:
   • ./xc16plusplus_only.sh linux or
   • ./xc16plusplus_only.sh win32 or
   • ./xc16plusplus_only.sh osx
5. Install the resulting files (that can be found in the install-*gnu-target-name*/bin/bin subdirectory) on the target system as if you had used the src_build.sh script.

Limitations

• There is no libstdc++, therefore all C++ features that rely on external libraries are not available:
  • No std::cout / std::cerr
  • No STL
  • No exceptions
  • No RTTI (runtime type identification), e.g. typeid and dynamic_cast cannot be used
• Extended data space (EDS) is not supported. If your chip has more than 32K RAM, you will not be able to access any address above 32K from C++. Also, make sure that your stack is located in the low 32K region (the --local-stack linker option, enabled by default, does exactly this).
• Address space qualifiers, such as __eds__, are not understood by the C++ compiler.
• The legacy C library (i.e. compiler option -legacy-libc) is not supported. If your XC16 version is 1.25 or newer, where -legacy-libc has become the default, make sure you set the -no-legacy-libc compiler option.

Some tips

• The standard #include <libpic30.h> does not compile in C++ (because libpic30.h contains __eds__). Use the libpic30++.h file provided in the support-files directory instead.
• Compile support-files/minilibstdc++.cpp with your project (even if you do not use dynamic memory allocation), otherwise some symbols will not be resolved successfully by the linker.
• Always compile C++ code with -fno-exceptions and -fno-rtti to avoid compiling code that relies on unsupported C++ features.
• Define macro __bool_true_and_false_are_defined before including stdbool.h, so that it will not attempt to redefine such native C++ keywords. It is a good idea to define it on the command line with the -D__bool_true_and_false_are_defined compiler option.
• C symbols referenced from C++ code will not be resolved correctly unless they are marked as extern "C".
• Interrupt service routines written in C++ must be marked as extern "C" too, for example:

extern "C" void __attribute__((__interrupt__, __auto_psv__, __shadow__)) _T1Interrupt(void)
{
  // Put C++ code here
}

• Extended data space is not supported by the C++ compiler, but if you want to use the upper 32K RAM region you can write C code to access it and call it from your C++ code.

License

Patches are released under the same license as the portion of the XC16 source code they apply to, i.e. GNU General Public License, version 3 or (if applicable) later. A copy of the GNU General Public License is available in this repository (see file LICENSE-GPL3). The GPL does not extend to programs compiled by XC16++.

The example project (example-project/ subdirectory) and support files (support-files/ subdirectory) are released to public domain, under the terms of the "UNLICENSE" (see file LICENSE-UNLICENSE).