Today we are pleased to announce official VisualGDB support for the Keil ARM compiler, the RTX operating system and Keil software packs. The Keil environment is a step up from the open-source GCC compiler that provides better optimization and comes with an extensive collection of software libraries.

VisualGDB has previously supported the Keil compiler through editing the Makefiles and error message rules, however it provided a less streamlined experience than GCC. The new VisualGDB 5.4 preview 10 puts this to an end with full out-of-the-box support for the Keil tools:

Creating a project using the Keil compiler instead of GCC is now straight-forward. Simply pick it in the toolchain selector (both ARMCC and ARMClang compilers are supported) and VisualGDB will automatically configure everything for you:

This includes an update to our MSBuild backend that now understands common Keil compiler and linker settings, and an updated Makefile template with Keil-specific rules, so you can use either of the build systems for your projects:

If you are using the Custom edition of VisualGDB or higher, you can use the VisualGDB-provided GUI for managing the Keil packs. Simply check components like LED Support, RTX or USB Host and VisualGDB will automatically add them to your project just like the Keil IDE does:

The new VisualGDB version also includes support for the RTX operating system (using both GCC and Keil), so you can easily view the state of your threads:

Our profiler and real-time watch framework also got updated to support the Keil compiler and RTX operating system, so you can now use the VisualGDB GUI to find bottlenecks in your Keil-based code and visualize the internal state of your programs:

Try it out

You can download VisualGDB 5.4 Preview 10 on the download page. If you have any feedback, don’t hesitate to use our support form or the VisualGDB forum.