Is E&R the place to ask about questions of programming, but related to microcontrollers?

Question

Hi,

I wanted to ask some programming related question on E&R but for a microcontroller. I decided to postpone it until I got the go-ahead.

"What is the ISR for the comparator change interrupt on a dsPIC33F?"

Answer 1

Absolutely! (In my humble opinion)

I assume that anything related to peripherals or interrupts is a better fit for here than SO.

Many questions about general programming on a microcontroller which are space/time constrained are also a better fit here. Most SO users assume a 2GHz machine with 4GB of RAM, infinite disk space, a complete set of drivers, and an OS. If that's not the case for your project, then it's likely a better fit here.

Of course, for some of the programming problems you'll encounter, the platform doesn't matter. If you could run into the same problem on a PC, then it's probably better over at SO.

In the end, I think it comes down to a question of utility: Where are you more likely to get the answer you want? On SO, 80% of the users don't know what 'ISR' stands for, 95%% of them don't know what a comparator is, and 99% of them don't know what a dsPIC33F is. On E&R, I'd guess that 99% of the users know what 'ISR' stands for, 95% know what a comparator is, and 80% know what a dsPIC33F is. Many E&R users probably have the datasheet on their hard drive.

[Note: All statistics made up on the spot.]

Also, I'll answer your question here for now, drop me a comment when you decide to post it to SO or E&R and I'll move it over there. [Whole bunch of Output Capture related stuff removed  :P  ].