Eclipse embedded development woes, req feedback

Hi,

If you use Eclipse (the IDE, especially for embedded use, I would really
appreciate your responses.

I now have Eclipse(Zylin Embedded CDT) + OpenOCD talking to my LPC2103
(ARM7-TDMI), but I'm experiencing what seems like shortcomings in
Eclipse. Maybe others here who use Eclipse for embedded development can
shed some light.

1. Is there an "easy" way to automate the build, compile and
debug/attach process

As is, if I am debugging and I find a mistake in the code and I switch
to C perspective to fix it, when I do a build, it cannot create the
final executable because the debug perspective seems to open the file
with exclusive access.

I have to kill the debug perspective, re-compile, re-load OpenOCD and
re-attach the debugger. It may sound like I'm whining, but it really
becomes a chore and consumes a lot of time. It really interrupts the
thought process. I also end up getting gdb or Eclipse to lock up (I hit
the stop button and it doesn't stop for example) and I have to kill
Eclipse and start-over, each time.

With my Atmel AVR setup, I can re-compile and AVR Studio detects the
main executable is changed and re-programs the AVR, and restarts the
debugging process, all almost automatically.

I've even used the ST development tools which use GDB and they're able
to do all of what I need as well (stop, pause, resume, re-program/build
without issue).

I'd love to script the process if that's what is needed, but I'm
clueless how to do that in Eclipse.

2. When debugging with Eclipse, are you able to "pause" a program and
then resume it?

When I select the main thread (the only thread) and hit the pause button
(||), nothing seems to happen and the program keeps executing. Perhaps
my definition of pause is skewed, but when using AVR Studio, pause means
the program is stopped, I can inspect variables, registers memory and
see where the program currently is. This is handy if the hardware stops
responding, I can figure out where it died.

Any pointers or ideas?

3. Also when debugging, how does one simply restart the program,
without needing to re-compile, re-load, etc?

The big red STOP button does not seem to work, I just want to "reset"
the program and start from main.

Please help a frustrated engineer out. I'm not ready to give up (yet),
I think there's hope here...

Regards,
John.
.

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