Re:CodeSourcery, DriverLib and first steps

Gang-

As past college educator, small biz owner (took firm public) I've watched this Dev. Tool "saga" with growing concern. Running a new small biz my contacts/friends are mainly other small biz owner/operators - (IBM ain't calling)- following are our "combined" small-biz views...

1) At least ONE-THIRD- perhaps ONE-HALF(!) of the forum problems reported are caused by Dev Tool issues! Not "just" an LMI issue - ALL ARM forums have similar Dev Tool sagas. Yet strangely - the "unrecoverable" blood, sweat, tears investment continues...

2) Simpler - richer supported Dev Tools ARE available. (IAR, Keil are two we've used) Code-size limited versions are provided FREE - with no time restrictions.
256KB versions cost around $3K - but much can be done in 32KB.(free)

3) Cart BEFORE Horse! You "potentially" save $3K by "overcoming" the "mine-field" provided by "almost free" Dev Tools. What is your time worth? What do you do when a NEW problem arises? When a new micro is released? (new features/libs) When you have to "teach" a new employee "how" to successfully use your "cobbled" system? (of course you've fully documented ALL of your procedures/inclusions...)

4) Success of your new product. If your design succeeds - paying $3K for a simple, documented, straight-forward Dev Tool is a no-brainer. You have a paid, trained tech support group. Getting to market EARLY is crucial to product profitability. Overcoming Dev Tool issues STEALS productive time/effort/funds from your product. (and is immensely demoralizing!)

5) What biz are you in? We seek to deliver the best features, functions, performance using our LMI micros. We blend the micro with other, new "advantaged" parts so that we can "best" compete! We conceive then write the best code and exploit the micro's features/capabilities. We ARE NOT seeking nor interested in "how" you overcame the free Dev Tool battle. (and we ARE hiring)

Again this writing is the consolidation of several small biz owners w/in US/Eur. We are reacting to the "apparent" LOSS of much productive time by a large group of talented, motivated individuals. We have no tie to the commercial Dev Tools mentioned - my goal was to provide a manager's perspective to, "I've got this great new ARM micro - NOW What???"