Release Notes

1.0.0 on 2018-12-27

Notes

We're happy to release the first production-ready version of TinyCLR OS, our modern and managed .NET development system for tiny IoT and embedded devices that uses the world-class Microsoft Visual Studio with C# and Visual Basic. TinyCLR can be used commercially on our System on Modules but you can also port it to your own system, free of charge, using our prebuilt cores for ARM7, ARM9, Cortex M3, Cortex M4, and Cortex M7 and the freely available GCC compiler. We're already hard at work on the next release where we plan to bring even more features that make embedded development even faster and easier.

Libraries

Changes

None.

Known Issues

Support for the embedded Visual Basic runtime is incomplete and some uses may throw cryptic compile errors #51.
DrawPicture on the BrainPad does not work correctly #313.
SPWF04Sx Wi-Fi on the FEZ does not work unless PA0 is manually set low before initialization #28.

Firmware

Changes

None.

Known Issues

Testing NaNs for equality gives unexpected results #231.
The .constrained IL prefix is not supported and throws UnsupportedInstructionException #76.
Using exception filters may crash the system in some uses #177.
CAN message timestamps use the wrong origin #579.
CAN timing calculation does not use all of the values correctly #576.
Signal generator generates incorrect timings in some cases #526.
Multi-pin reservations where the first pin is already reserved mistakenly return okay #580.
PWM polarity is opposite from what it should be on G120 and G400 #581.
The first clock for signal generator is the same as idle state #582.
When not debugging the application may slow down #584.

TinyCLR Config

Changes

None.

Known Issues

None.

Extension

Changes

None.

Known Issues

When adding an image or font to a resx file, a reference to the drawing assembly is not automatically added #90.

Porting

Changes

None.

Known Issues

None.

1.0.0-preview3 on 2018-11-30

Notes

This release is the third and final planned preview of the 1.0 release for TinyCLR. There have been no major changes in this release -- its entire focus was bug fixing. We'll wait a few weeks to ensure no major issues are discovered before rebuilding with the final release version numbers and doing the final release.

We are also maintaining our decision to keep throwing an exception when .constrained is encountered instead of potentially allowing silent and incorrect behavior. It is currently known to be used when accessing overridden members on structs, particularly those from object like ToString, Equals, and GetHashCode. You'll encounter it on enum and TimeSpan, among others.

The libraries, extension, and firmwares are all uploaded to their online sources so you can update your firmware using TinyCLR Config, update your packages using the NuGet package manager with the NuGet.org source, and update the VSIX from the extensions area of Visual Studio (make sure to include pre-releases for NuGet as this is still a preview). We will still make these binaries available on our own hosting as well, but the expected workflow remains the usual NuGet/marketplace search and download process you have for other packages and extensions. You can find all downloads in their respective sections on the downloads page.

Libraries

Changes

Fixed cases where SPWF04Sx will sometimes lose writes #14.
Fixed SPWF04SxConnectionType being misspelled #26.
Fixed GetFiles and EnumerateFileSystemEntries having an extra slash in path #309.
Fixed managed drawing functions throwing when out of range #300.
Fixed red and blue being swapped in the UI library #306.
Fixed some pins and ports names being out of sync #193.
Fixed software I2C not running at a consistent speed #515.
Fixed software SPI not respecting ChipSelectType #459.
Added missing SD, RTC, and Wi-Fi names to pins #266.
Added chipselect hold and setup time to software SPI #292.
Added support for carrier frequency in signal generator #477.
Changed DrawPixel in display controller to use the format of the display controller #543.
Removed setter from IDriveProvider.Name in place of an Initialize method #297.

Known Issues

Support for the embedded Visual Basic runtime is incomplete and some uses may throw cryptic compile errors #51.
SPWF04Sx Wi-Fi on the FEZ does not work unless PA0 is manually set low before initialization #28.

Firmware

Changes

Fixed PWM jittering when decreasing the pulse width #102.
Fixed the reported messages received on CAN being incorrect #527.
Fixed the CTS changed event not working #59.
Fixed deployment not getting added to api manager #545.
Fixed SupportedDataFormats in display throwing an exception on access #572.
Fixed DrawString not resetting row/column on soft reboot #542.
Fixed enabling CAN before setting timings throwing the wrong exception #554.
Fixed the Read and Write in storage provider crashing the device #495.
Fixed use of filesystem crashing the second deploy without a power cycle #457.
Fixed being able to mount the filesystem after previously unmounting it #491 #506.
Fixed the system crashing if the SD card is removed after acquiring the controller #498.
Fixed deploying on G120 and G400 sometimes failing #431.
Fixed G120 disappearing in TinyCLR Config if the device is rebooted #513.
Fixed enabling handshaking on UART2 crashing the G30 #518.
Fixed signal generator failing on G400 #461.
Fixed software I2C failing on G400 #458.
Fixed G80 serial debug not working #456.
Fixed GPIO interrupts not always working #496 #578.
Fixed graphics getting corrupt on the UC5550 after some time #562.
Fixed RTC not working on G400 #460.
Fixed rebooting the device in serial mode taking a long time #509.
Fixed the native SPI drivers not respecting ChipSelectType #471.
Fixed SPI SupportedDataBitLengths throwing an exception on access #557.
Fixed the storage description having wrong values and format for size, address, and attributes #544 #571.
Fixed multi-pin reservations not releasing previously reserved pins if a pin fails to reserve #312.
Fixed the timestamp for HAL events using the wrong origin #546.
Fixed GetMessagesToWrite in CAN crashing the device #555.
Fixed the UART DataReceived event not raising for all data #547.
Fixed UART handshaking not always working #462.
Fixed UARTHS-B handshaking not working on UC2550 #517.
Fixed entering bootloader from TinyCLR Config not working on UC5550 #503.
Fixed UC5550 sometimes crashing #484.
Removed the -mlong-calls compiler flag #501.
Removed display backlight from the native driver #481.
Improved performance of flushing the display on STM32F7 #487.
Changed pins to default pull-up #563.

Known Issues

Testing NaNs for equality gives unexpected results #231.
The .constrained IL prefix is not supported #76.
Using exception filters may crash the system in some uses #177.
CAN message timestamps use the wrong origin #579.
CAN timing calculation does not use all of the values correctly #576.
Signal generator generates incorrect timings in some cases #526.
Multi-pin reservations where the first pin is already reserved mistakenly return okay #580.
PWM polarity is opposite from what it should be on G120 and G400 #581.
The first clock for signal generator is the same as idle state #582.

TinyCLR Config

Changes

Added a version field to the UI #24.

Known Issues

None.

Extension

Changes

Fixed deploying a project using fewer sectors than a previous project leaving old assemblies on the device #151.
Fixed inspecting certain variables in the debugger locking up the device #152.
Fixed rebooting TinyCLR sometimes throwing when trying to connect to the USB stream #155.

Known Issues

When adding an image or font to a resx file, a reference to the drawing assembly is not automatically added #90.

Porting

Changes

Fixed product version string showing the version numbers and not the friendly string #356.
Fixed some API IDs and target names not matching #292.
Added interrupt and sleep data to power #480.
Added USB get connection status #568.
Added OneWire API type ID #359.
Added TouchController API type ID #357.
Added USB connection event and property #367.
Removed the presence event and property from storage #361.

Known Issues

None.

1.0.0-preview2 on 2018-09-28

Notes

This release is the second preview of the 1.0 release for TinyCLR. It also marks the point where we are feature complete for 1.0! If we do another preview release, it'll just be a bug fix release. The biggest change in this release is the addition of a managed graphics provider and the initial release of some drivers for common chips (like the one on our old N18 display). There are also several usability tweaks to SPI and the three signals classes.

To support uploading to the Visual Studio gallery, we had to change the package ID used by the project system extension. This means the old one will not get uninstalled when installing this release, so please uninstall the preview1 or older extensions manually.

We're also releasing a tool to convert desktop TrueType fonts to the format used by TinyCLR. Keep in mind there are legal implications to using and distributing fonts and that we cannot provide advice on that. The tool used to convert binary files to glb and ghi files was also updated to support generating UF2 files used by the BrainPad (which has its own new firmware in this release as well, available on https://brainpad.com/).

The UC2550 and UC5550 now come in a glb format instead of the old ghi format and you can find their device definitions in the ports repo as well. There is also a new bootloader for the UC5550 available on the bootloader page.

We have decided to keep throwing an exception when .constrained is encountered instead of potentially allowing silent and incorrect behavior. It is currently known to be used when accessing overridden members on structs, particularly those from object like ToString, Equals, and GetHashCode. You'll encounter it on enum and TimeSpan, among others.

The libraries are once again uploaded to our NuGet account. Make sure to enable finding prereleases in the NuGet package manager. We've also uploaded the extension to the Visual Studio Marketplace so you can download and install it from there and then keep it up to date with Visual Studio. We will still make them available on our own hosting as well, but the expected workflow remains the usual NuGet/marketplace search and download process you have for other packages and extensions. You can find all downloads in their respective sections on the downloads page. As before, you can update your firmware using TinyCLR Config and now you can update your packages using the NuGet package manager from the online source.

Libraries

Changes

Added chip select setup time, hold time, and polarity to SPI settings.
Added Now to RtcController that takes a DataTime.
Added IsValid to RtcController.
Added Rgb444 and VerticalByteStrip1Bpp display formats.
Added I2C display interface type.
Added a public constructor to Font.
Added infrastructure to provide custom draw targets to be used with a managed graphics implementation using GraphicsManager in drawing.
Added built in draw targets that draw to an in-memory buffer in various formats.
Added AssemblyInformationalVersion attributes to every library.
Added SSD1306, ST7735, and APA102C drivers.
Added Memory to the native library that exposes members from the native provider.
Added ChipSelectType to SpiConnectionSettings to pick between GPIO, controller, and none.
Fixed red and blue being swapped in the internal field of Color.
Fixed software I2C not working #365.
Fixed software SPI not working #293.
Moved SPWF04Sx driver to the drivers namespace and package.
Removed UseControllerChipSelect from SpiConnectionSettings.
Removed the constructor from SpiConnectionSettings.

Known Issues

SPWF04Sx may sometimes lose writes #14.
Support for the embedded Visual Basic runtime is incomplete and some uses may throw cryptic compile errors.
A number of API names are missing from pins, notably RTC and SD.
Carrier frequency does not work on signal generator.

Firmware

Changes

Added new BrainPad BP2 firmware.
Added signals to UC2550 and UC5550.
Added filesystem to G30 #322.
Fixed DisplayController.DrawBuffer failing for data not sized to the entire screen #410.
Fixed DisplayController.DrawPixel using an incorrect format.
Fixed ADC on G120E failing if closed multiple times #438.
Fixed UART failing to receive any data after receiving an error on G400 #428.
Fixed CAN pins being reversed on the UC2550.
Fixed memory intensive applications crashing low-memory devices #423.
Fixed I2C failing on some slaves, #416.
Fixed UART DataReceived event always returning a count of zero.
Fixed servo not working on the BrainPad, #414.
Fixed multiple I2C devices failing when used together.
Fixed heavy serial load crashing STM32Fx devices #411.
Fixed the Edge property on the GPIO interrupt sometimes being incorrect.
Fixed G400 ADC not always being accurate #373.
Fixed several HAL functions having no implementation #376.
Fixed the run-app pin failing on USBizi #333.
Fixed the UD700 getting corrupt on the UC5550 after a few minutes.
Implemented all of signal capture and pulse feedback and most of signal generator #357.
Implemented many functions missing on USB client #398.

Known Issues

PWM may jitter when decreasing the pulse length while enabled.
Testing NaNs for equality gives unexpected results.
The .constrained IL prefix is not supported.
Using exception filters may crash the system in some uses #177.
During multi-pin reservations, if a later pin fails to reserve, previously reserved ones are not released #312.
Serial debug sometimes fails on G80 #456.
Deployment after accessing filesystem fails #457.
Software I2C fails on G400 #458.
Software SPI fails for some slaves #459.
RTC fails on G400 #460.
G400 signal generator generates incorrect timings #461.
UART handshaking behaves inconsistently #462.

TinyCLR Config

Changes

Fixed help URLs.

Known Issues

None.

Extension

Changes

Updated the package ID of the VSIX.

Known Issues

When adding an image or font to a resx file, a reference to the drawing assembly is not automatically added.

Porting

Changes

Added timestamps to many device event handlers #388 #368.
Added IsValid to TinyCLR_Rtc_Controller.
Added a config object to TinyCLR_Display_SpiConfiguration.
Added TinyCLR_Display_I2cConfiguration.
Added TinyCLR_Startup_SetMemoryProfile that allows setting the memory profile of the device.
Added GetStats to TinyCLR_Memory_Manager to return amount of memory free and used.
Added wake source to TinyCLR_Power_Controller::Sleep.
Added contiguous and equal-sized properties to the deployment configuration.
Added UC2550 and UC5550 device headers to ports.
Added UF2 support to imagegen.exe #412.
Changed the sleep level names to LevelN.
Changed SPI, I2C, UART, and CAN configuration to take a config struct.
Changed CAN read and write to take a message struct.
Changed TinyCLR_Startup_SetDeploymentApi to TinyCLR_Startup_AddDeploymentRegion.
Changed return type to TinyCLR_Result on power.
Changed TinyCLR_Task_Manager::Enqueue time unit to be native ticks.
Changed many of the members in TinyCLR_Interrupt_Controller.
Changed the parameter apiName to data0 (and shifted the rest) in TinyCLR_Interop_Manager::RaiseEvent.
Changed RegionsRepeat into contiguous and equal-sized in storage.
Fixed the linker not always complaining when regions overflow #30.

Known Issues

None.

1.0.0-preview1 on 2018-08-15

Notes

This release is the first preview of the 1.0 release for TinyCLR. We will have at least one other preview after this one. The biggest change in this release is the rework and simplification of the devices library. It was divided into one library per peripheral to reduce deployment size for apps that don't require all libraries. We did keep the devices package as a metapackage that depends on the other packages so you can easily bring them all into your project if desired.

Many of the devices did keep a familiar API like ADC, DAC, and GPIO. Others like I2C and SPI did keep a similar device API but the controller was reworked. Previously you'd be able to call FromId on the device or controller object. Now you must call FromName on the controller and then call GetDevice. A few others had minor tweaks to names and members. Of particular note are that you must now call Enable to turn the display on and mounting with FileSystem now requires the Hdc property from the SdCardController instead of the controller instance itself.

UART saw a lot of changes in this release. The entire storage library was removed and the SerialCommunication class was changed into UartController to mirror the pattern used with all of the other devices. DataReader and DataWriter are gone as well, so reading and writing to UART can only be done with a byte array.

We also introduced a new native library that holds many of the things we added to mscorlib previously like interops, APIs, system time, NativeEventDispatcher, and, new in this release, power.

Given the amount of changes in the HAL layer we do expect a few more bugs in this release, but we are working to iron them all out before 1.0.

.constrained continues to throw in this release as we gather more data. It is currently known to be used when accessing overridden members on structs, particularly those from object like ToString, Equals, and GetHashCode. You'll encounter it on enum and TimeSpan, among others. We will be making a decision soon on whether or not to revert the exception before the final release.

In preparation for the official 1.0 release we are no longer building the firmwares for older unsupported devices. Please see this doc for more information. The source code remains available though so we invite you to contribute to it and build your own firmware. We have also uploaded the libraries to our NuGet account. Make sure to enable finding prereleases in the NuGet package manager. We will still make them available on our own hosting as well, but the expected workflow going forward is the usual NuGet search and download process you have for other packages and extensions. You can find all downloads in their respective sections on the downloads page. As before you, can update your firmware using TinyCLR Config and now you can update your packages using the NuGet package manager from the online source. There are no new bootloaders in this release.

Libraries

Changes

Reworked the APIs of many of the peripherals in GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices library, particularly UART.
Split up the GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Devices into one library per peripheral.
Removed the GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Storage library.
Added a new GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Native library and moved SystemTime, Interop, Api, and DeviceInformation to it.
Added Power to GHIElectronics.TinyCLR.Native.
Added DrawPixel to the display controller.
Added DrawBuffer to the display controller.
Added Enable and Disable to many controllers.
Reworked SystemTime to have GetTime and SetTime with DateTime overloads.
Reworked and simplified the entire provider model, removing many classes in the process.
Renamed OutputEnable to DataEnable on DisplayController.
Renamed ApplySettings to SetConfiguration on DisplayController.
Renamed PwmPin to PwmChannel.
Fixed GetDirectories always throwing #343.
Reduced the default brightness of the light bulb on the BrainPad.

Known Issues

SPWF04Sx may sometimes lose writes.
Support for the embedded Visual Basic runtime is incomplete and some uses may throw cryptic compile errors.
A number of API names are missing from pins, notably RTC and SD.
The Edge property of GPIO interrupts is not always correct.
Many properties on SignalGenerator and SignalCapture do not work.
PulseFeedback does not work.
SoftwareI2C does not work #365.
DisplayController.DrawBuffer does not work with a non-zero origin or size different than the entire screen #410.
DisplayController.DrawPixel draws the incorrect color.
The timestamp is incorrect when creating a new file.

Firmware

Changes

Fixed I2C sharing conflicts incorrectly throwing OutOfMemoryException #298.
Fixed OutputEnablePolarity being inverted on UC5550 #315.
Fixed some SD cards getting corrupt after use on G400 #319.
Fixed G120 getting stuck deploying #331.
Fixed CAN not working on G400 #332.
Fixed the run app pin not working on USBizi #333.
Fixed paths requiring an extra \ after the drive letter #334.
Fixed the display on the G400 reserving PC26 #336.
Removed the SPI display controller implementation.

Known Issues

PWM may jitter when decreasing the pulse length while enabled.
UART handshaking may miss data on STM32F4.
Testing NaNs for equality gives unexpected results.
SignalGenerator and SignalCapture do not work on UC2550 and UC5550.
The UD700 will become corrupted after running for a few minutes on the UC5550.
Using exception filters may crash the system in some uses #177.
Software SPI does not work with some devices #293.
During multi-pin reservations if a later pin fails to reserve, previously reserved ones are not released #312.
File system is not available on G30 #322.
The ADC is not accurate on the G400 #373.
Many events do not pass a timestamp #368.
Many of the non-essential functions of USB client are not implemented #398.
Using UART may eventually lockup the UC5550 #411.

TinyCLR Config

Changes

Allowed the app to be resized.

Known Issues

None.

Extension

Changes

None.

Known Issues

When adding an image or font to a resx file a reference to the drawing assembly is not automatically added.

Porting

Changes

Simplified many of the controller APIs.
Removed the controller number from the various controllers.
Renamed many instances of provider to manager or controller.
Updated to use the latest GCC.
Removed Acquire and Release from core-provided APIs.
Changed to an initialize and uninitialize pattern for required APIs.
Added InteropManager to TinyCLR_Interop_MethodData.
Merged DeploymentProvider and SdCardProvider.
Changed specifying the deployment API to a dedicated function call.
Changed InteropManager::GetArgument to start at index 0 for all arguments, regardless of instance or static.

Known Issues

The linker will not error when regions overflow or overlap #30.

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