Review CMSIS-Zone

[ReinhardKeil]

This issue is indented to discuss pros/cons of CMSIS-Zone.

The overall concept of CMSIS-Zone is explained here https://arm-software.github.io/CMSIS_5/Zone/html/index.html. The overview page contains a video that explains the operation of CMSIS-Zone.

Strenghts of CMSIS-Zone

• Awareness of hardware limitations (alignment, number of regions, etc).
• Interactive mode for resource allocation with instant user feedback.
• Flexible template engine via FreeMarker allows to generate source files and tool control files.

Current Implementation Issues

• Eclipse based: CMSIS-Zone is currently an Eclipse plug-in - obviously not the technology we favor going forward.
• Command line mode that is basic and does not allow to manage resources. Perhaps the next-generation implementation should be split into a command-line and UX part.
• Not widely adopted.

Potential Problem with JAVA FreeMarker is a open-source project managed by the Apache Software Foundation. The current implementation is JAVA based which adds complexity for desktop installations. Also Oracle has the trend to change license conditions - any legal or technical concerns here?

[cartu38]

About Java / Freemarker I fully share concern. Why not adopting GPDSC https://www.keil.com/pack/doc/CMSIS/Pack/html/pdsc_generators_pg.html same way of working ?

If Eclipse based I may imagine we are discussing here about UI contribution to help .azone creation. According to me such is IDE responsibility to promote its own. But a CLI is required to manage then CMSISzone data -> project files.

[ReinhardKeil]

I take your point to review GDPSC as an option, but the issue here is that we would like standardized ways to generate tool-specific files. The GDPSC approach does not have a template language behind.

Ultimately we should support flows like described here https://github.com/Open-CMSIS-Pack/Open-CMSIS-Pack/issues/12. FreeMarker is a JAVA implementation, but today the dependency to Oracle is gone, as there are open source alternatives for the run-time system. Given the flexiblity, I think FreeMarker templates are an option that we should consider.