comFramework is distributed as a ZIP archive. The initial installation step is unzipping the contents to a directory of your choice. The directory should grant read and write access to all users.
The downloaded comFramework archive contains:
The source files of the CAN interface don't need any installation. (With the trivial exception of a text editor to open and read them.)
The DBC code generator is always needed. Its installation means to provide a Java runtime environment 8 (aka 1.8) or higher, to set two environment variables and optionally to extend the system's search path.
excelExporter, the auxiliary code generator, is not essential but useful. excelExporter uses the same Java runtime environment as the DBC code generator. The additional installation effort is no more than setting an environment variable and optionally to extend the system's search path.
Having this done, productive work with comFramework can already begin – the rest is optional: A Java JDK and C (cross) compilers are (only) needed to build the comFramework tools from the Java source code or to build the sample integrations for deeper investigation.
The sample integrations come along with the generated C source code. They are mainly meant as instructive sample code. An installation of tools is not required if this suffices, if there's no need or intention to alter the sample code and re-compile it:
The Arduino sample integrations comes along with source code and the compiled executable; you can immediately upload it to your Arduino Mega 2560 board and see how it behaves. An installation of Arduino 1.8.19 is required for this.
If the Windows sample integrations should be needed as running applications for further investigation or debugging then GCC needs to be installed. 32 and 64 Bit versions are supported but only a few versions of GCC have been tested; see whichCCompilerToUse.html for details. The same file can be found locally as comFramework/canInterface/sampleIntegrations/winTestMT/whichCCompilerToUse.html.
All C compilation and related operations is controlled from makefiles, which need the MinGW port of GNU make 3.82 or higher. If you type "make --version" in a shell window this revision of make needs to respond. Other make derivatives or elder revisions of GNU make won't probably work.
A Java SDK or RTE is not element of this repository but required for build or execution, respectively.
Java binaries are not element of this repository. For running the installed tools, a Java 8 RTE suffices (and should be found on nearly any machine).
If you don't have suitable Java binaries on your machine or if you want to build the tools from source code then a Java SDK of version 23 or higher is recommended. The installation of an according Java system can be downloaded here https://jdk.java.net/23/ (visited November 2024).
After installing the Java package, you need to make the executables accessible. Either:
Either of the two may be done globally and persistently or locally in the startup scripting of your project, which makes use of comFramework.
The installation of the main code generator is described in detail in file installation.html; the file can be found locally as comFramework/codeGenerator/doc/installation.html.
For more details on running the code generator, see the readMe.md files in the root directory of the examples that come with the code generator.
The installation of the auxiliary code generator excelExporter is described in detail in file installation.html; the file can be found locally as comFramework/excelExporter/doc/installation.html.
For more details on running the code generator, see the readMe.md files in the root directory of the examples that come with excelExporter.
Arduino 1.8.19 needs to be installed for compilation of the Arduino samples and even for upload of the pre-compiled binaries. (The GCC avr tools are taken from the Arduino installation.) Please refer to http://www.arduino.cc/ (visited November 2024).
Caution: Do not install the elder revision Arduino 1.6.5: This package did not contain all required GCC avr tools.
A new environment variable needs to be set. Let ARDUINO_HOME point to the root directory of the Arduino installation. All tools are located via this variable.
An installation of MinGW make is required. Modify the system path variable such that GNU MinGW make 3.82 is found when typing "make".
In a shell window type:
make --versionThe MinGW port of GNU make 3.82 should respond. Now CD to one of the root directories comFramework/canInterface/sampleIntegrations/arduinoSampleIntegration or comFramework/canInterface/sampleIntegrations/arduinoSampleIntegrationEmbeddedCoder of the Arduino samples and type:
make help
make -s clean
make -s buildto rebuild the sample (which includes the generation of the network database dependent C code of the CAN interface).
Please refer to file readMe.md in the root of the Arduino samples for further details.
GNU make 3.82 needs to be installed. Under Windows, only use MinGW distributions. The Cygwin distributions will probably need some modifications of the makefiles.
The GNU C compiler GCC (32 or 64 Bit, e.g., mingw-i686-8.1.0-release-win32-dwarf-rt_v6-rev0 or mingw-w64-x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0) needs to be installed.
Compilation of the Windows samples has been done under Windows 7 and 10. The code is free of specific operating system calls and only uses functions from the GCC libraries. As these are widely operating system independent the sample should compile and run under other Windows versions, Linux and Mac OS as well; this has however never been tested and as a matter of experience most often there are some minor incompatibilities, which have to be sorted out first – just give it a try.
Using another compiler than GCC will mean code changes in the application interface, command line evaluation in the first place.
On principle, the makefiles are prepared to support the compilation under Linux and Mac OS as well. If problems appear you should first have a look into sub-makefile locateTools.mk, which is responsible to find the paths to the executables. There are different configuration possibilities to find the tools either via system search path or via environment variable settings. Maybe you need to alter this configuration first. The same holds if you have different GCC revisions installed and want to switch between them.
If MinGW GNU make 3.82 and GCC are installed then you can CD to the root directory comFramework/canInterface/sampleIntegrations/winSampleIntegration or comFramework/canInterface/sampleIntegrations/winTestMT of the Windows sample integrations and type:
make help
make -s clean
make -s buildto rebuild the samples (which includes the generation of the network database dependent C code of the CAN interface).
Please refer to files readMe.md in the root of the Windows samples for further details.