Keil vs STM ide

[NSemrHomeInit]

Dear ST Hello,

What is the advantage and disadvantage of the Keil and STM ide.

Did you recommend one of them. I want to change the ide and I am in 2 minds,

Thank you in advance,

S.Tarik

[DWebb.2]

I have been using CubeIDE for a couple of years and have really come to like it. Originally I had used VisualStudio as my main IDE so the learning curve was fairly steep (mainly on the Eclipse specific quirks).

However if you put the time in to really understand it is an incredibly powerful tool. The debugging capabilities are superb - in addition to the usual stuff like setting breakpoints and running code line by line you can really get into some advanced stuff. Eg:

• Read/write access to both core and peripheral registers
• Memory browser
• Easily switch between C/C++ and Assembly
• Direct access into GDB from the debugger console
• A build analyser allowing you to drill right into memory usage and flash storage
• A fault analyzer

... and given I keep discovering new stuff all the time there's probably a load more.

I'm not mad on the workspace/perspective thing that Eclipse does, but once you get your head around it , it is logical enough.

All in all it is a fantastic tool and STM have done an incredible job to produce such a great tool (and the price is pretty good too!).

Dom

[gregstm]

I like the Keil interface, it is elegant and robust. One of my computers is an old Windows XP and I can still use it for occasional development work (an old version of Keil of course). But I HATE the astronomical cost if you want to exceed 32K... Even if you can afford the price, your software is then tied up with various annoying license restraints... I mainly use the STM32L4 range, and thankfully I have managed to keep my designs less than 32K - so far...

[Piranha]

@Pavel A.​, in addition to ST-LINK, EmBitz also supports all SEGGER J-Link probes and software out of the box, including this one:

https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/j-link-edu-mini/

And the converted on-board ST-LINK:

https://www.segger.com/products/debug-probes/j-link/models/other-j-links/st-link-on-board/

[Piranha]

The EmBitz, which is discussed in previous comments, feels like a uVision + Visual Studio 2010. It is open-source and uses GCC compiler/linker.

[NSemrHomeInit]

Hello,

Dom you did an incredible jot you too :),

Thank you

[bjorn2]

No, EmBitz doesn't support segger j-link's nicely, a lot of functionality is not working with the jlink.

Just keep using the ST-link from STmicro, also the version 3 is very fast (perhaps faster than jlink).

Things which works with st-link (with eblink as server) and NOT with j-link in EmBitz:

• Live variables (very handy with mouse over)
• Enhanced OS viewer support
• eb-monitor (sort of semihosting)

Also, don't replace your onboard nucleo stlink with jlink to keep the possibility to use ST-Util (sometimes needed to unbrick your device)

[Piranha]

Use "J-Link GDB Server" and it all works.

Also the conversion of the onboard ST-LINK to J-Link is easily and quickly reversible.

[Shahrear]

Nice

[Javier1]

not to mention workspaces stop working randomly if you include them in a git repo.

[Javier1]

Team STM32IDE here, i was forced Keil while in university, i grew VERY tired of hacking keil versions in order to bypass their 32Kb limit.

• When i started this job i was broke so i chose STM32IDE freeware, learning it from scratch(not very different).
• Now that i could afford Keil license i dont want to / i dont have to purchase it, that was their marketing strategy not mine.