I tend to use gcc and gcc-derived tools quite often in my work; examples include the Arduino environment, LPCXpresso, and WinAVR. While not the best compiler in the world performance-wise, it wins hands down when you factor in its portability, ubiquity, and stability — as well as cost.

Sometimes weird stuff happens though. Recently I upgraded my main desktop machine from Windows XP to Windows 7. Since then, I have been unable to run any of the above toolchains successfully. What gives?

Turns out the problem was caused by a recent installation of a gcc toolchain, Ride7, from Raisonance, for the EM Micro 6819 processor family. That’s right, one gcc toolchain killed 3 others!

The solution (at least to make the first 3 work again) was to remove the GCC_EXEC_PREFIX environment variable that Ride7 created. Turns out that is a variable used in older gcc implementations that now causes havoc with newer ones. And Ride7’s gcc is OLD! 2.80! Current gcc versions are in the 4.3 range or higher.

Despite my initial fear that the trouble was Windows 7 itself, it turned out to be a combination of things — I never tried those other tools again after installing Ride7.

Here’s an example of formatting code:

public class Hello {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      System.out.println("Hello World!");
   }
}