[sdiy] Xilinx 3E webpack and its gotcha's!

[Paul Maddox]

Karl,

> Yes yes i know your happy, but where is the gotcha's??
> There is **always** such things in every dev software
> package relesed under the sun/moon.

ahh, but there's a difference.

Xilinx is a commercial company and they acknowledge that a lot of people 
want to develop stuff at home, and perhaps move onto doing it 
professionally, so you get a 'good' set of tools for free.

GPL/GNU stuff you get Full blown tools, but poor documentation (don't flame 
me, this is based on my expereince of GPL tool chains).

> example:
> Im still sitting here completely cluless to get the ARM GCC
> system to work, i have never felt so puzzled in my entire life!!

nbope, you just need to be a Linux Guru...

Like I say, it's two different 'mind sets' that have created these tools.

GPL = Free 'pro' software, but you have to work at it
WebPack = Free 'good', but limited, software, with documentation and 
support.
Full blown ISE = Expensive, top class 'pro' software with excellent support 
(including telephone).

There's a trade off with all these things

Paul