Propeller 2 Graphical Debug Tools in Spin2

Early adopters using the Propeller 2 Multicore Microcontroller are well aware of our internal software development process. Specifically, Chip adds features and tests the compiler with his stripped-down PNut for Windows. Once these features are proven to work, Jeff moves them into the official Propeller Tool for Windows.

Recently, Chip has added some interesting graphical DEBUG display tools to PNut and shared them in a P2 Live Forum video (linked below). While these examples haven't yet been incorporated into our official Propeller Tool for Windows as of the time of this post, early adopters are already using PNut to try out the various DEBUG displays.

Here’s how it works. DEBUG messages invoke special graphical controls that take the form of a unique window. Once instantiated, displays can be continuously fed data to generate animated visualizations. These displays are very handy for development and debugging, as various data types can be viewed in their native contexts. Up to 32 graphical displays can be running simultaneously.

When a DEBUG message contains a backtick (`) character (ASCII $60), a string, containing everything from the backtick to the end of the message, is sent to the graphical DEBUG display parser. The parser looks for several different element types, treating any commas as whitespace. For example, this code generates the Scope XY Display shown above: