Re: [avr-gcc-list] What Happened to the sbi() and cbi() Macros????

[Victoria Welch]

On Monday 31 January 2005 10:46, Jeff Barlow wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> I'm an old retired guy. I started doing embedded systems
> design back in the early seventies. I have some
> unsolicited advice for some of you folks:
>
> 1. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. It's pretty
> clear who's doing all the work on the tool chain, and
> who's just complaining about stuff they got for free. If
> you expect to have influence, you need to contribute.

Make no mistake, the efforts of everyone who provided this 
wonderful system for the avr is GREATLY appreciated.

I do not consider myself to be bitching about what I got for 
free and I don't think many of the proponents of 
establishing backward compatibility are either.

In our less than perfect way we are trying to contribute to 
making this a better system :-).

> 2. Time passes; things change; deal with it. Otherwise
> you'll turn into a crusty old fart and the kids will
> laugh at you.

:-) it can happen :-).

> 3. If you're going to code in C, you better really learn
> C before you start trying to crank out production code.
> If simple stuff like "PORTA &= (uint8_t)~(1<<3);"
> confuses you, you need to spend more time reading your
> K&R.

Always, but I think that you are missing my point.  Not 
everyone is an embedded systems engineer who has been doing 
this since the early 70s :-)  That is when I first got 
exposed to it, but it was many years before I got to wade 
into as I wanted to :-).

The avr-gcc toolchain is not a commercial product (thank 
God!) and because of the blessed open source folks it is 
available to FAR more people than a commercial offering 
would be.  Thus you are going to find less knowledgeable 
people dealing with it.  One never knows, they might grow 
into it :-).  I did :-).

I guess the main point is the backwards compatibilty issue 
with a heavily used feature(s).

And if you are into this, yes, there is no replacement for 
K&R, I have two copies.  One here at the console and one on 
the bedside table :-).

And you know what?  Even after reading through those many 
times and referencing them often, I still don't know it 
all :-).

Take care es 73, V.
-- 
Victoria Welch, WV9K/7.  "Engineering is the art of making 
what you want from things you can get."-  Jerry Avins
"Learning about the U.S. from the mainstream media is like 
learning about plumbing by sitting in a cesspool."  -- 
Michael Phelps