Proton vs. PICBASIC Pro vs. MBasic Pro
Comparison table
| Proton | MELabs | MBasic | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Suite | |||
| Updateable | Free updates | Paid updates | Free updates |
| Programming Environment | Windows | DOS | Windows |
| IDE |  |
 (3rd party only*) |
|
| Code Explorer | |
(3rd party only*) |
|
| Third Party Programmer Integration | |
(3rd party only*) |
|
| Integrated Bootloader | (16Fxxx, 18Fxxx) |
(3rd party only*) |
(16Fxxx) |
| Online updating | |
(3rd party only*) |
|
| Plugin Architecture | |
(3rd party only*) |
|
| Compiler | |||
| Device Support | 12,14,16-bit core devices. | 12,14,16-bit core devices. | 14-bit core devices. |
| Method of Compilation | True compiler, producing readable (and alterable) ASM code. | True compiler, producing hard to read MACRO code. | A Pseudo Compiler Interpreter, that produces unreadable, and un-alterable ASM code. |
| Size of ASM code produced. i.e. Optimisation | Good to Excellent, depending on the PICmicro used. | Fair to Good, depending on the PICmicro used. | Very poor indeed. |
| Floating Point variables | |
|
(via ad–hoc) |
| String Variables | |
|
|
| 32-bit variables | |
|
|
| Support for BIT, BYTE, and WORD variables. | |
|
|
| Large Arrays (upto 256 elements) | |
|
|
| DATA table support. | Excellent | Poor | Fair to Good |
| Graphic LCD support. | |
|
|
| MPLAB Integration | |
|
|
| Simulator | ISIS |
(3rd party ICD*) |
(ICD) |
* MELabs PICBASIC Pro ships with a Free, reduced functionality edition of MicroCode Studio.
All information was correct at the time of publication
