CRiSP Weblog

I was experimenting with trying to reduce the size of the CRiSP download by getting Unix systems to compile the macros on peoples machines. Not having to download 1MB of .cm files was worth it.

However, I hit a hiccup which was impacting the Windows release - namely missing compiled macros, so this feature had to be disabled.

CRiSP on Windows is distributed using the WISE install mechanism, but the config files are derived from the Unix version - and avoids having to keep two sets of configs in sync with each other.

Either I need to replace WISE with my own Win32 applet or figure out how to change the packagaing mechanism. (Getting rid of WISE is the best thing, but that means debugging a brand new Win32 app).

Oh well...

The other day someone was asking about the Verilog/Emacs macro which I have alluded to in a prior blog posting.

Just a quick update - Emacs has a macro which provides an advanced form of templating by using the file you are editing as the source of the template, by using certain comments to highlight how to expand features. Verilog requires a lot of duplication of definitions, and this is very tiring if done by hand.

In looking at the macro and trying to figure out what actually happens, showed up some issues, because I am not a Verilog expert and wasn't sure what i found was due to errors or misreadings. I am going to try again to move this forward.

So if anyone has an interest in Verilog and wants to know more or help out, then feel free to mail me.

I acquired this Pentium M 1.2GHz subnotebook from the far east in a recent trip. I am very pleased with it - superb spec, but it took some getting used to.

First, it had Japanese Windows XP installed - kind of tricky to do anything with when you cannot even read the menus. They gave me an image of Windows XP - so I saved that off...

And installed Knoppix. Brilliant - it understands all the hardware - except for a few problems. The wireless ethernet even worked.

But the screen, which is 1280x768 was only being treated as 1024x768. After a bit of searching the web, and a lot of experimentation, I can now run in the full screen mode and the screen is beautiful.

Next - VMWare. Alas Workstation 4.5.2 failed to install, because the Linux kernel (2,6,11) has changed so VMWare breaks. This is a pain and one of the biggest annoyances of the kernel development process. Fortunately, google comes to the rescue and it didnt take long to get that going.

I installed kernel 2.6.12.5, but have experienced some problems with that - possibly due to KNOPPIX enabling too many drivers and options, and pruned them back. Looks like the SMP option must be turned off.

I can now run freebsd or Solaris X86 inside the VMWare session, and next is to try the original WindowsXP install so I regain some lost functionality *playing DVDs and CRiSP development).

The machine is lightweight enough to carry around and battery life seems good, although it wants to turn the fan on a lot if you do anything.