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Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny

JamesT_21
Moderator
Moderator
Moderator
10 solutions authored 5 solutions authored First solution authored

And just like that, ModusToolbox v2.2 supports some PSoC 4 kits. No download, no upgrade, no new tools, no plugins or add ons. Nothing to do except what you do, which is start a new application with the Project Creator. Voila! Now you have PSoC 4 available inside the software environment.

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The amount of work behind making that magic happen is immense. But that’s on us, not you. We designed the tools for precisely this. We can add functionality transparently. The magic is in these small words, which you can find in the log as you create an application.

Getting manifest...

 

There is a chain of manifest files. It starts with the super manifest. The tools fetch this file and parse the contents to know what’s available. That file is a list of other manifest files for different parts of the software environment. There are BSP manifests, code example manifests, library manifests, and so on. The tools start at the super manifest, discover all the other manifests, fetch and parse those, until we’re done. What’s available to you is what is in the manifests.

 

There is one and only one thing predetermined in all of this: the location of the super manifest file on GitHub. The content of that file, and of all the other manifest files, can be updated whenever we need to.

 

To use that flexibility, we have a lot of work to do on our side. All of that work lives on GitHub. The libraries need to be available and working right. A set of useful code examples needs to be in place. The board support packages must be complete, and all dependencies identified for what each kit is capable of. When everything is in place the last thing we do is update the manifests and, like magic, all this new stuff just shows up in the tools.

 

That underlying work is decidedly non-trivial. There is clearly some chance that something won’t work right. We hold ourselves to a high standard but no one is perfect. If we need to fix a problem, the ModusToolbox design ensures that the burden on you is about zero. We can update each element in the system without breaking or changing the tools. That is true all the way back up the chain, from library to example to BSP to manifest file to super manifest.

 

For you? It. Just. Works. An entirely new silicon architecture appears in the tools, and you did precisely nothing to get that. You can take advantage of this manifest system to add your own “stuff” into the environment: examples, libraries, BSPs. Your content automagically appears in “our” tools like the Project Creator and the Library Manager. Start your exploration in the ModusToolbox User Guide. Look for the chapter titled, strangely enough, “Manifest Files.”

 

Given the upcoming US holiday, let us give thanks!

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