General and IDE - Migration Overview#

Starting with Code Composer Studio version 20.0.0, all new releases of Code Composer Studio with be based off of Theia IDE. This is a much different environment compared to prior version of Code Composer Studio based off of Eclipse IDE. In addition to the IDE changes, the availability and functionality of other components have changed. The next following modules highlight some of the key changes between the Theia IDE based Code Composer Studio (also referred to as CCS Theia) and prior Code Composer Studio releases based off of Eclipse IDE (also referred to as CCS Eclipse). It is by no means a complete resources that identifies all the changes, but summary of some of the more important fundamental changes.

IDE#

Code Composer Studio is based off of the Theia IDE open source framework. Theia IDE is very similar to Visual Studio (VS) Code but there are some differences. In general, users familiar with VS Code have found Code Composer Studio to be a familiar and comfortable environment. Please refer to the User’s Guide for more information on the IDE.

Note

The greatest change for CCS Eclipse users migrating to CCS Theia will undoubtedly be related to the GUI itself. However, users also familiar with VS Code should find the CCS Theia environment a familiar one. Given the drastic differences between CCS Eclipse and CCS Theia from a GUI standpoint, it is beyond the scope of this module to highlight all of the differences.

Perspectives#

CCS Theia does not have the same concept of perspectives or a “simple mode” that CCS Eclipse had. There is just one layout with all the same menu items, buttons, etc available all the time. Instead of switching whole IDE layouts (perspectives) like in CCS Eclipse when editing source or debugging, the user can switch between the Explorer or Debug view when needed. In some cases CCS Theia may automatically switch focus between views (such as switching focus from the Explorer to Debug view when starting a debug session for a project).

Extensions#

CCS Theia is based off of a new IDE framework. Hence any Eclipse-based plug-ins used with CCS Eclipse would not be compatible with CCS Theia. Equivalent Theia compatible plug-in (more commonly referred to as “extensions”) can be installed from the Theia Marketplace. Please refer to the User’s Guide for more information

Workspaces#

In CCS Eclipse, a single workspace folder is used by a running Code Composer Studio instance. It is the main working folder for Code Composer Studio and the default location for all new and imported projects. This folder was also used by Code Composer Studio to store a variety of other metadata information such as user preferences, custom perspectives, cached data for plug-ins, etc. Deleting this metadata in the workspace folder would reset the Code Composer Studio environment to the “original” state.

In CCS Theia, workspaces work a bit differently. A workspace here is the collection of one or more folders that are opened in the Explorer. In most cases, a single folder is opened in the workspace. However, it is possible to have multiple folders open simultaneously, known as a multi-root workspace environment. While there are some user settings and multi-root environment information is stored in the workspace folder, all the cached information for the IDE and associated plug-ins are stored in a different location in the user’s home folder. For more information on CCS Theia workspaces, please refer to the User’s Guide.

Warning

Workspace folders are not compatible between the two environments and cannot be migrated/shared.

App Center#

The App Center is no longer available in CCS Theia. Resource Explorer in the recommended portal to obtain any additional packages.

Updates#

The update manager in CCS Theia is limited to device support updates and IDE incremental updates.

Compiler#

CCS Theia does not come with the older TI Arm proprietary compiler, though it can be obtained separately and used with CCS Theia. It does ship with the TI Arm Clang based compiler however.

Device Support#

The following device support has been dropped in CCS Theia:

CC32xx
All C5000 based devices (including C54x and C55x)
DaVinci
OMAP

XDCTools#

XDCTools has been deprecated in support and does not come with CCS Theia.