TI Visual
Linker Release Notes
Contents
-
Setup / Installation
-
Using Visual
Linker with Code Composer Studio
-
Viewing
a Graphical Depiction of Memory
-
One Recipe Per
Visual Linker Session
-
Notes on the
New Recipe Wizard
-
Limitations of
Undo and Redo
-
Limitations of
Drag and Drop
-
Limitations of
Elimination of Unused input sections
-
Cut and Paste
-
Hints on Handling
Large Links
1. Setup /
Installation
-
The setup program will add the
installation directory (typically C:\ti\VisLink) to the path. On Windows
95 and 98, it will modify the autoexec.bat file. On Windows NT, it will
change the path environment variable.
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2. Using the
Visual Linker with Code Composer Studio
To enable the Visual Linker
within Code Composer Studio, select "Tools -> Linker Configuration". Select
'Use the Visual Linker' and click OK.
The first time you
build your application within CCS, you will receive the following link
error:
"ERROR '.rcp'
There is no Recipe file in the project. Double click this message to create
one."
Double-click this error message
to launch the New Recipe Wizard. The wizard will walk you through the steps
necessary to create a recipe file.
A recipe is the main file
type used by the Visual Linker. The recipe file, when created, is named
<projectfilename>.rcp and is located in the same directory as your CCS
project file. This file also appears in your CCS project.
After the recipe is created
and added to your project, your CCS builds will use the Visual Linker.
To modify your link, double-click the RCP file in the CCS project file
list. This opens the Visual Linker graphical user interface. Use drag and
drop to modify the objects in your link. For online help, press F1.
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3.
Viewing a Graphical Depiction of Memory
The memory view in the Visual
Linker interface displays a graphical representation of your board's memory
space.
To view a graphical representation
of any item within the interface, right-click on the item and select View
Memory.
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4. One Recipe
Per Visual Linker Session
For technical reasons, only
one VL recipe can be used in a VL session. That is, once you've opened
a recipe, you cannot open another one without restarting the tool. If you
try to close a recipe without closing the VL, you will be prompted to close
the VL. This only affects VL when it is running stand-alone (outside of
CCS). You do not have to restart CCS to open a different recipe.
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5. Notes on
the New Recipe Wizard
When running the New Recipe
Wizard, there are certain steps that can only be executed once. If you
need to change something in a previous step and the Back button is disabled,
you will have to cancel the wizard, restart the tool, and start over.
The disabling of the Back
button may depend on options selected during running of the wizard, but
in general, it happens after the "Sections Directives Translation" and
"Stack and Heap" pages.
It is possible to get the
VL in a state where you can do nothing but exit. This will happen if the
New Recipe Wizard is cancelled. In these cases, close the VL and start
it again to continue working. This
only affects VL when it is running stand-alone (outside of CCS). You do
not have to restart CCS to start the wizard over again.
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6. Limitations
of Undo and Redo
The Visual Linker supports infinite
levels of undo and redo. You can "undo" and "redo" M`most drag and drop
and related operations. However, not all actions can be undone. Creating
new memory regions, deleting memory regions, and changing the addresses
of a memory region cannot be undone. Most operations in the Strategy window
also cannot be undone. If you are unsure what action will be undone, look
at the "Edit" menu. The "Undo" item changes to show what action will be
undone. For example, if you just moved something, the menu item will read
"Undo MOVE". The Redo menu item operates similarly. Also, a single drag
and drop may result in several instructions, which will require several
Undo commands to completely undo the effect of the drag and drop.
There are several methods
of accessing undo/redo: accelerator keys (CTRL Z and CTRL Y), menu items
(on the Edit menu), and toolbar buttons (the curved arrows).
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7. Limitations
of Drag and Drop
You can drag and drop from and
to many different sources in the Visual Linker. However, not all possible
combinations are supported. For more information, see the "Placing Input
Sections in Memory" topic in the online help.
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8. Limitations
of Elimination of Unused Input Sections
When creating a recipe in the
Visual Linker, the default behavior is to eliminate unused input sections.
You can override this behavior on the "Roots" page of the New Recipe Wizard.
This page allows you to force groups of input sections considered unreachable
by the Visual Linker to be included in the link. Normally, you will not
want to include anything displayed on the Roots page. However, there are
limitations to the Visual Linker reachability check that can cause this
display to include sections that are needed. Sections that are only referenced
through hard addresses will not be detected as reachable.
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9. Cut and
Paste
The Visual Linker supports cut
and paste in a couple of different ways. Plain text can be cut from and
pasted to edit boxes. The following functions can be accessed by right-clicking
on an edit box or by using the following accelerator keys:
Cut - CTRL X
Copy - CTRL C
Paste - CTRL V
Undo - CTRL Z
Visual Linker objects can
also be cut and pasted. This is the same as dragging an object from one
place to another. For example, selecting "Code Sections" in the tree view
and pressing CTRL-X will "cut" the item.
A "cut" item will not disappear
from the screen until a paste operation is completed.
Continuing the example, select
a memory region in the tree view and press CTRL-V. The code will placed
into that memory region. There is no concept of "copying" Visual Linker
objects, they may only be "cut". There are restrictions on cut and paste
similar to drag and drop. Objects in the tree and memory views may be cut
and pasted. The list view only supports cutting, not pasting. Cut and paste
can be accessed in a variety of ways: accelerator keys (CTRL-X and CTRL-V),
menu items (on the Edit menu), and toolbar buttons.
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10. Hints
on Handling Large Links
The Visual Linker uses code
from the legacy linker to read object files. This code is not optimal
for the Visual Linker environment. When there are large numbers (100s or
1000s) of object files, there may be a several-minute delay in reading
the files.
To decrease the delay, consider
using a faster/newer PC with more RAM and a faster hard drive.
Future versions of the Visual
Linker will improve the software throughput of the object file readers.
In addition, when there are
large numbers of object files, the Visual Linker interface tends to become
sluggish. Zooming the Memory View to just the portion of memory currently
being worked on will speed things up. The computational cost of supporting
the display and update of the Memory View is proportional to the number
of boxes being drawn. In a link with a thousand files, there might be five
thousand boxes when displaying the entire space.
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