Hey guys, Seeing as how the LCD library header takes up about 45% of the 168's flash memory, I was wondering if there's any way to write the library to EEPROM, so that you can save program space in flash.

Thank you,

@eminthepooh

It's not really the LCD library that takes up the memory space, it is the "printf" family of functions. If you can get away with using just the Nerdkit LCD functions like "lcd_write_string()" and "lcd_write_int16()" and do all the formatting yourself, you can save some space. Using EEPROM space is much too valuable (and limited) for programming code. If you are able to use only the NK functions, you'd just have to comment out the following line from your makefile by putting a pound symbol in front of it:

LINKFLAGS=-Wl,-u,vfprintf -lprintf_flt -Wl,-u,vfscanf -lscanf_flt -lm

Using EEPROM space is much too valuable (and limited) for programming code.

What about using an external EEPROM? I suppose spped might be a issue.

Ralph

I suppose spped might be a issue.

Sorry, I sometimes stutter. That should be

I suppose "speed" might be an issue. (note also "an" always before a vowel, not "a issue" but "an issue")

Ralph

LOL at Ralph self correcting...

Rick

Thank you very much PCBolt and Ralph for your suggestions. PCBolt was right, omitting printf family of functions reduced the size considerably.

Thanks guys,

@ eminthepooch -

I should clarify one or two things about the statements I made above. First, if you comment out the line from your "Makefile", you can still use the "printf" functions but when the compiler sees you are using them it will link in the library code and make your finished uploaded file bigger (but not "as" big). This line...

LINKFLAGS=-Wl,-u,vfprintf -lprintf_flt -Wl,-u,vfscanf -lscanf_flt -lm

...will link in the largest amount of code since it is using the floating point libraries "printf_flt" and "scanf_flt" (not their actual file names). There is a third option using this line instead...

LINKFLAGS=-Wl,-u,vfprintf -lprintf_min -Wl,-u,vfscanf -lscanf_min

... will link in a minimized library that is only good for integers and strings. I've used it before and sometimes it's a pain but it can do simple formatting.

Well Rick, it's kinda slow around here, so I thought I'd throw in a English lesson with my correction.

Ralph

Wouldn't that be "an" English lesson...

Damm