Hello Guys, I am a newbie in ST. But before I use Microchip MCU lot and I programming usually in assembly language. The microchip IDE is very good and stable than STVD. And also many examples given to learn easily.I found very difficult in ST.

[Mkuma.12]

So i get very frustating about ST a such big company. Why they not stable good IDE and example as like Microchip.I google lot but not to get write answer Kindly help me to learn ST MCU's in easy way as like my experience to learn Microchip.

Thanks and Regards

Munna kumar

[Tesla DeLorean]

Big companies want to deal with other big companies, not individuals.​

S​eem to recall IAR having a professional platform, and I did all my 8-bit work without an IDE.

To be honest most of the focus and investment is on the ARM side of things, and that might be a much more marketable set of skills.​

[Mkuma.12]

Thanks for reply. So guide me what should i do to learn. Since without any example i am unable to start. Kindly suggest me from where i should start.

thanks and regards

munna

[Tesla DeLorean]

I'm a self learner / free climber, I'm probably the wrong guy to ask for guidance.

In the situations without example I'd suggest you focus on learning the fundamentals, logical thinking and problem solving, and apply that to the manuals and documentation you do have.

[Mkuma.12]

ok i will do that.One last, any good book for learning.

[Philipp Krause]

My personal impression (everything below is just the impression of an outsider) is that there are different factions within ST when it comes to STM8.

One faction wants to migrate STM8 users to STM32, phase out the STM8.

Another faction want to keep STM8 alive and develop it further to keep competing with other 8-bit vendors (and avoid STM8 users migrating to other 8-bit vendors).

In recent years the results of this are:

* ST no longer putting resources into the STVD IDE, in particular not updating it to support SDCC.

* ST supporting SDCC development by providing evaluation boards.

* ST having made a deal with Cosmic to provide their STM8 IDE and Compiler at no cost (similar top how SiLabs did with Keil).

* ST developing new Arduino-compatible NUCLEO boards for STM8, then putting them on hold, considering to cancel them, then turn around again, in the end releasing them much later than planned originally.

* ST releasing 3 8-pin STM8 devices, but no other new STM8 devices.

* ST first releasing the 8-pin devices without a development board (but an ST employee on the forums provided schematics for a reference design they came up with), then later providing an evaluation board.

Fortunately, in the end it seems, ST will keep selling the STM8 as long as there is demand.

And there is an active developer community providing tools:

* IAR and Cosmic keep updating their tools.

* The free tools, such as SDCC, stm8flash, OpenOCD, Code::Blocks also work very well (see e.g. http://www.colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml).

* Third-party evaluation boards are plenty (minimal boards for just a few EUR, full feature boards such as those by Waveshare, etc), at least for the STM8S. When ST had put their Arduino-compatible NUCLEO boards on hold, others came up with the sduino UNO and sduino MD 208 boards to fill the gap.

A noticeable weakness in the STM8 ecosystem:

* There is a lack of STM8A development boards, despite these "automotive" devices possibly being a good choice for E-bikes (I wonder if this contributed to the widespread use of STM8S instead of STM8A in e-bikes). The STM8A-Discovery is great (the STM8AF board from it is the STM8 board I use the most), but it is the only STM8A evaluation thing out there

[Philipp Krause]

Have a look at some simple tutorials:

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

Look into the documentation for the STM8 device you want to use.

Look into a good book on C programming (which one to choose probably depends on your background - "Modern C" by Jens Gustedt is great, but probably not the best choice for a total beginner; "The C programming language" by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie book¹ is still okay but somewhat dated). If you don't mind somewhat formal text, the C standard itself is also quite readable (get a free pdf draft, no point in paying a lot of money just for an added ISO cover page).

If you want to use "recent" C (i.e. something newer than the 1990 standard), I'd recommend to use SDCC or IAR, as they are ahead of the other compilers when it comes to standard-compliance (http://www.colecovision.eu/stm8/compilers.shtml).

¹ Second edition, which teaches C according to the 1990 C standard, not the first edition that was about pre-standard C.

[Mkuma.12]

Thanks for reply.I will go through your advice. And sorry for late reply.

[Tesla DeLorean]

Lot of fiefdoms fighting internecine conflicts. Everyone dies, or leaves wounded..

Someone needs to figure out how large the pie is, and whether it is worth fighting over.

[henry.dick]

there will always be a market for anything.

it is just whether that market is meaningful enough for a big player like ST to stay. I think the writing for 8-bit devices is on the wall, more so as software (development) cost goes up (due to labor cost) and hardware cost goes down.