I share your frustration regarding the AVR tools
Ive worked for 5 years in an embedded development company using AVR processors and Kanda tools everyday from 9 to 17:00 sometimes you could sit a whole day doing nothing because your tools decided to strike on you. We where six on the office and everyone of us have had those problems at least once a month, think about the cost of having engineers sitting on their ass doing nothing because of bullshit tools
Today I run my own business doing practically the same as I did before and I still have those problems from time to time, Ive tried a lot of alternatives to the AVR such as PIC, Zilog, OKI, LPC ARMs and MSP430 but even though I have tried all these processors and wasted A LOT of time trying, I always fall back to AVR as my 5 year experience means that I can get the job done of the back always knowing that Im doing the right thing from the start Starting a new project requiring PCB artwork with a new processor can cost you a shit load of problems and money, Been there done that and paid the cheque ! For me trying out the LPC2106 for a new project became my worst nightmare as it turned out there where a lot of internal bugs in the processor such as the ADC/IO port that couldnt be used digitally when also used with Analog signals not to mention a useless internal reset circuit that would latch up the device and a lot of misunderstandings with the SPI port I cant even assemble my thoughts about all the problems Ive had with that one I ended up designing an AVR board in my holiday having the board made ASAP and mounted at the cost of a Boeing 747
Well, I haven't even gone into the ICE-50 problems...
I tend to get projects that really demand high speed.
In my current one, I need to control the flow of data between two 16 bit devices, and actually talk to both of them once in a while. When I'm moving data, I'm literally operating at full speed, not even looping the routines.
The codeset that shipped today was 99.9% full on a mega-128, and all developed in the last month.
(a lot of 14+ hour days, plus a week off for a death in the family)
I may even actually have a personal life, if I can figure out where I left it.
What Im saying is AVR has arrived to stay, theres no evidence that they would stop production or any processors taking its throne as the king of 8bits also theres an AVR for almost every project Ive ever had, and Ive actually found a reliable solution to my problems which is having a separate VIA EPIA (a very small size computer) that is used ONLY as a programming device its placed inches from my regular pc and I can switch my screen from my regular pc to the EPIA with a monitor switch box at the push of a button having the EPIA already set up for programming from the network drive where I compile my project
This works for me and It might work for you!
Hmm.. Actually, there is a shop locally that does these things.
I've been considering a laptop investment again, as my existing one is approaching it's third birthday, and has no disk drive or serial/par ports. 30G HD, WIDE screen, and (for it's day) fast processor though. It's served me well, and logged probably 75kmiles as a GPS mapping and ham radio box. I've toyed with the idea of a small computer in the car, but then I always come back to needing a laptop to see what it's doing.
Maybe it's the right answer, to just have a separate machine for this. Cumbersome though, you can't get away from the keyboard, mouse and screen. (I-glasses???)