I have a situation where I want to build several variants of the executable code from a single set of 8051 Assembler and Keil C51 source files. I would intend to guide the tools to modify the build process for each variant through the use of conditional compilation (i.e. #if / #else / #endif usage).

I can see several ways to achieve this goal and will present two of them. I would like to see some discussion on the merits or disadvantages of either of these methods, or any other possible method that anyone wants to inject into the discussion.

Method 1 - Multiple uV4 Project Files

Using multiple Keil project files has the advantage that one can easily use the projects to manage the various build configurations. This is particularly valid for projects where the Linker segmemt mapping commands vary between the various executables. This also lends itself well to use of the interactive GUI environment for editing and building the project. One disadvantage of this approach is that it requires common options and configurations between the various project files to be maintained in duplicity.

Method 2 - Single uV4 Project File

In this method a single project file drives the build process thus keeping all common options and configurations confined to a single environment. Configuration for the various builds has to be communicated to the project file via an environment controlled include file. (As far as I know there is no way to pass symbol definitions on the command line to a uV4 project file but I would like to hear otherwise from anyone that knows). Another problem with this approach is it is more diffucult to manage differing ling segment maps between the various executable configurations.

Please share your ideas.

Michael Karas