{"id":4101,"date":"2025-06-09T13:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/professor\/drsmith\/?p=4101"},"modified":"2025-06-09T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T18:00:57","slug":"github-and-mcuxpresso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yorku.ca\/professor\/drsmith\/2025\/06\/09\/github-and-mcuxpresso\/","title":{"rendered":"GitHub and MCUXpresso"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GitHub is a good way to collaborate on shared software projects if you're looking for an off-site, third-party system for storing and sharing the code. The repositories on the GitHub site can be either private or public, but they are available to the company that owns GitHub, Microsoft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GitHub<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I use MCUXpresso on macOS to develop code for NXP microcontrollers. It's based on the Eclipse IDE, a general purpose IDE but it's been customized to enable features that are critical to embedded systems development. Alternative development pathways include compiling and debugging from the command line, using VSCode and selecting the right plugins or using the Arduino 2.x IDE. Personally, I prefer MCUXpresso as it works out of the box when developing for NXP microcontrollers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clone via the Command Line<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"copy<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are GUI approaches to making a local copy of a GitHub repository on your computer and then there are more traditional, command-line approaches. I'll start with the command-line approach. (Alternate Instructions are found here<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, make sure that you've installed the GitHub command line tools. (beyond the scope here) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once you have confirmed that you have the command line tools, open a terminal. Then, navigate to the folder where you want to make the repository clone on your local computer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

git<\/mark> clone<\/mark> git@github.com:onnimikki<\/mark>\/K32<\/mark>xxxxxxxxx<\/mark><\/em>.git

This is what it looks like when typing it out in the command line:<\/pre>\n\n\n
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Terminal interactions when cloning a GitHub repository.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
In this case I was in a folder called temp3 and I downloaded the K32<\/mark>xxxxxxxxx<\/mark><\/em> project from user onnimikki<\/mark> using git<\/mark>'s clone<\/mark> command.\n\nOnce you're done with cloning the repository you can then use the MCUXpresso import tool to import it as an Eclipse project, assuming that the original authors of the code wrote it as such.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n
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Clone via the GUI:  MCUXpresso Import Tool<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
There are two steps to using an online clone in MCUXpresso:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Making a local copy<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Importing the copy as an Eclipse project<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    We'll start with the coping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Step 1: Make a local copy of the online repository<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    MCUXpresso already has Git tools built-in as it is based on Eclipse.  Depending on your version of MCUXpresso, you can try one of these two approaches :<\/p>\n\n\n\n