Hello, I am new to ST micro, and was wondering if any one can tell me what IDE I should be using to program the STM8 series, down loaded the cube, but there is no compiler there.

[JHule.1]

..

[Ozone]

https://www.st.com/en/development-tools/stm8-software-development-tools.html

Had been working with Raisonance several years ago.

The toolchain was o.k., but the licencing kind of annoying.

[JHule.1]

Thank You.

[KLed1]

I just started out and here's what I've found so far (I may be wrong too!)

The STM8CubeMX is just informational. It doesn't generate any code like the STM32CubeMX. Nothing the datasheet cannot give you already.

For the IDE there's two, one is the IAR Embedded Workbench but costs money. There's a free version that limited by the size. IAR costs over $3k otherwise.

The other is a ST tool call STVD or ST Visual Develop. It doesn't come with a compiler, so you have to download the Cosmic Compiler. That's a free download, although you have to register and download a license file. Then after you install the ST Visual Develop, you will notice that if you try to debug or program through it's built in interface, it will crash. If it does then you have to go to this page and download the updated addon. Once you do this it seems like a plain IDE with some basic functions. Good enough to start with.

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D50X00009XkWxBSAV/st-visual-developer-says-out-of-memory-and-crashes-when-trying-to-launch-the-programming-tool

[JHule.1]

Thank You

[Philipp Krause]

The Code::Blocks IDE supports the free Small Device C Compiler (SDCC), which has an STM8 backend.

While on-target debugging in the SDCC-based toolchain is supported via gdb, I don't know how well integrated that is into the IDE.

[JHule.1]

Thanks.

[Ozone]

The STM8 architecture seems ST proprietary, and AFAIK, the devices never got widespread support in the enthusiasts/hobbyist community.

Today, it seems mainly directed at commercial legacy users.

For hobbyist projects, I would stay away, and consider other MCUs.

STM32F0/L0 devices (Cortex M0) are not much more complex, and often even share peripherals with STM8 devices.

[JHule.1]

Thank You, that’s what I was thinking.

[JHule.1]

The only other manufacturer I have experience with is Microchip, and there IDE has a lot of bugs in it, that's why I was looking at ST but it looks like 8bit for them is an after thought.

[Ozone]

Uhhh, I had been working with the old and the new MPLab IDE & PIC16/18 in a former company.

And I'm glad I got out of this ...

[Philipp Krause]

Considering 8-Bit devices, the STM8 is among those with the best tools available. Both considering free and non-free tools:

On the non-free side you have the industry-standard IAR; also Cosmic, which AFAIk integrates well into STVD.

There also is non-free Raisonance, but they have been far behind the other compilers in nearly every way, and haven't even updated their STM8 compiler in years. It still is best when it comes to code size though.

On the free side you have SDCC, a compiler supporting current C standards and generating really good code.

If you want better tool support than the STM8 has, I guess the only option is to got to 32-Bit devices, where there is GCC and LLVM.

A while ago I did a comparison of these four compilers for the STM8:

http://www.colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml

I intend to update it soon using current versions (already redid the experiments for SDCC and IAR, but still need to look at Cosmic).

Here are some preliminary results in benchmark scores (using current SDCC, IAR and Raisonance, but Cosmic from two years ago):

All compilers have been set to maximum standard compliance and strong optimization. Optimizations goals: Code speed, balanced and code size.