Keil vs STM ide

Team ARM/Keil here.

I like my stuff to just work, and I don't like Eclipse and workspaces..

STM32CubeIDE has gotten significantly better over the past few years. I would recommend it. I don't like how slow and clunky the interface is--it takes a second to bring up the debug view, for example, but it does work. There have been a few Eclipse-based STM32 IDEs and it's by far the best, in my opinion.

I also don't like the concept of workspaces, where every project I've ever worked on is listed. You can have multiple workspaces, but it increases mental overhead and slows productivity when you're switching projects frequently.

And one is free, the other not...depend on if your a DIYer or a business...

As a DIYer I like workspace because those are some safe area where you can experiment, learn, and make mistake, thus allowing you to keep safe one where you work on your projects. It's a efficient way to have dedicated environnement.

I recommend using CubeIDE for the following reasons

1 - It is main stream IDE from the chip vendors

2 - It is based on the industry common IDE (Eclipse), if you change from STM to other vendors you feel home.

3 - Almost all the plug-in you can imagine, for example code static analysis (cppcheck)

4 - You will use the latest and the greatest GCC compiler efforts-less, for example c++17

5 - Highly customizable, you can customize almost every thing.

and many other reasons...

But the downside in my opinion is the learning curve.

Regards

Mazen AlJedaani

To those it may concern,

External memories is as a real issue in CUBEIDE, while it has been worked on paid compilers! Hope that there will be nice solution in next versions.

I have used both Keil and CubeIDE for about a year. It is true CubeIDE is free but my own personal opinion is Keil is much easier to use and to navigate. Also, I do not like the concept of workspaces. An interesting note, my local ST Senior Product Marketing Engineer strongly suggests using Keil, over CubeIDE or anything else. IMHO, the added expense of a paid tool is quickly made up in your work efficiency.

I have been using CubeIDE for a couple of years and have really come to like it. Originally I had used VisualStudio as my main IDE so the learning curve was fairly steep (mainly on the Eclipse specific quirks).

However if you put the time in to really understand it is an incredibly powerful tool. The debugging capabilities are superb - in addition to the usual stuff like setting breakpoints and running code line by line you can really get into some advanced stuff. Eg:

• Read/write access to both core and peripheral registers
• Memory browser
• Easily switch between C/C++ and Assembly
• Direct access into GDB from the debugger console
• A build analyser allowing you to drill right into memory usage and flash storage
• A fault analyzer

... and given I keep discovering new stuff all the time there's probably a load more.

I'm not mad on the workspace/perspective thing that Eclipse does, but once you get your head around it , it is logical enough.

All in all it is a fantastic tool and STM have done an incredible job to produce such a great tool (and the price is pretty good too!).

Dom

I like the Keil interface, it is elegant and robust. One of my computers is an old Windows XP and I can still use it for occasional development work (an old version of Keil of course). But I HATE the astronomical cost if you want to exceed 32K... Even if you can afford the price, your software is then tied up with various annoying license restraints... I mainly use the STM32L4 range, and thankfully I have managed to keep my designs less than 32K - so far...

Nice

Team STM32IDE here, i was forced Keil while in university, i grew VERY tired of hacking keil versions in order to bypass their 32Kb limit.

• When i started this job i was broke so i chose STM32IDE freeware, learning it from scratch(not very different).
• Now that i could afford Keil license i dont want to / i dont have to purchase it, that was their marketing strategy not mine.