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Author | strongerHuang
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Recently, the exchange group is discussing [the problem of choosing Keil and IAR], so let's talk about it by the way.
You may think that the integrated development environment interfaces such as Keil and IAR are relatively old and not easy to use.
However, here is a fact to tell you: Whether you are a beginner or a developer, the proportion of using Keil and IAR is higher than that of other tools, and it is not only a little higher .
Let me ask, how many of the friends here who are engaged in MCU development have never been in contact with Keil or IAR?
According to incomplete statistics, more than 90% of people who are new to microcontrollers will be exposed to Keil or IAR. At the same time, many veteran engineers who have worked for more than ten years insist on using Keil as their main tool for a long time.
In fact, there is another phenomenon that can show that Keil and IAR are the main development tools for single-chip microcomputers, that is, the IDE recommended by many MCU manufacturers, or the code routines provided by Keil, or IAR projects, especially the domestic 32-bit MCU (here Go to the official website to get the answer).
Choose Keil, or IAR?
As mentioned above, Keil and IAR are the current mainstream MCU integrated development environments, so should I choose Keil or IAR?
My answer is: you have installed both of them for a period of time, whichever one you think is more suitable for you, or whichever one you use is more comfortable, use that one.
My principle is: there is no best, only suitable or not.
But there is one thing, before making a choice, you need to understand more and try more. How do you know if it's right for you if you haven't tried it?
Here I come back to the selection of Keil and IAR. From what I have observed and understood: more people choose Keil than IAR .
Whether it's background messages, WeChat communication groups or private messages, the discussion is more about Keil, and the discussion about IAR is relatively less.
That is, the current overall situation is: Keil is more popular than IAR .
Why is Keil more popular than IAR?
Both Keil and IAR are the mainstream IDEs for developing single-chip microcomputers at present, but comparing the two, Keil is still better than IAR. Here are the following reasons for my analysis.
1. Keil is more suitable for beginners
A large part of MCU beginners learned from 51, and Keil C51 is the best choice for C51 MCU, so a large number of beginners choose Keil, so that they continue to use Keil as the main development tool after work.
At the same time, these beginners also use Keil as the main development tool when using 32-bit single-chip microcomputers (such as: STM32, GD32).
2. The Keil installation file is smaller
Keil and IAR have different versions of software for different types of microcontrollers. Keil has four types: C51, C251, C166, MDK, etc. More IAR: EW8051, EWAVR, EWMSP430, EWSTM8, EWARM, etc.
However, regardless of the version, through "horizontal comparison", Keil is better in terms of installation packages, installation time, and hard disk space occupied after installation.
The Keil installation package is smaller:
However, the installation file of the same type of software, Keil will be smaller. For example, the latest version of Keil C51 V9.61 for 51 only has 104M, while IAR EW8051 V10.40 has 421M.
Similarly, other versions, such as: Keil MDK V5.38a are only 887M, while IAR EWARM V9.40.1 has a size of 1.61G.
Keil installs in less time:
There is no way to quantify the installation time, and there are differences between computers with different configurations.
But on the same computer, by comparing the installation time, the installation time of Keil and IAR is significantly different, especially the ARM version software. For example, the latest version of Keil MDK V5.38a may be installed in only 2 minutes, while the latest version of IAR EWARM V9.40.1 may not be installed within 10 minutes.
After Keil is installed, the file size is smaller:
Not only is the installation package smaller, but the files (folders) occupied by Keil after installation are also smaller. Especially for the ARM version software, for example: Keil MDK V5.36 only occupies 2.7G hard disk after installation, while IAR EWARM V9.30 occupies 8G space.
3. Keil has lower requirements for computer configuration
If you take out a computer from 10 years ago, you can barely use Keil for emergency, but IAR is a bit unbearable.
Of course, this refers to the same situation (installing software of the same period), for example: using Keil MDK V5.30 and IAR EWARM V8.50, you will find that when using IAR EWARM, the CPU usage will soar, and then the fan will You are uncomfortable. . .
4. Keil debugging is more convenient
When it comes to debugging, if Keil MDK dares to be the second for ARM core chips like STM32 and GD32, I don’t think anyone will be the first.
why? Because both Keil and STM32 are the "sons" of ARM, of course, there may be very few, individual debugging functions/components, other tools will be better, but overall, Keil's debugging function is still better.
Of course, IAR's debugging function is not weak compared to the debugging functions of many other manufacturers' tools, at least most of the commonly used functions are OK.
5. Keil compatibility is better
Here is a comparison between Keil MDK and IAR EWARM.
You will find that there is basically no problem when opening a project file of a lower version with a higher version of Keil software. For example: use Keil MDK V5 version software, open the V4 version software, you can open it directly. Officially compatible, just click "Migrate".
And IAR EWARM, after crossing major versions, opened various problems, especially in the case of crossing major versions from V6, V7, and V8 in the past few years.
Of course, Keil also has compatibility problems, but overall, there are not as many problems as IAR.
Finally, everyone is welcome to leave a message to discuss: Do you choose Keil or IAR? Because?
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