Nios II development tools

[Altera_Forum]

Hi everyone, 

I've been using Nios for a few months so far and I thought I had reached a good knowledge of both processor, dev tools and included software drivers. When I lately explored more deeply some features, and used this forum for gathering the required information I also found a few posts that caused me a lot of concern if the way I'm working is really correct. Namely, I found several posts saying that Nios IDE is no the best development system for complex project; it's good only for "playing"; Altera is obsoleting it in favour of software build tools or plugin for Eclipse; I can build some ref designs only with sbt and not with ide. Are these assertions true? Now, I really can't understand if I'm using the right tools.  I installed Nios EDS 90sp2 and I thought this was quite up to date. Can someone clarify me all this situation?  Thanks in advance Cris

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I am not a "geek" of Nios II but I have experienced during 4 years.  Since 7.1, Nios II was in a "transistional" state : Nios II IDE, Eclipse, system library (system.h), different routines, scripts....  Until 9.1, NIOS II IDE was the "official" Developpement Tool. In parallel, there was Nios II EDS which is abandoned. I found traces of NIOS II SBT (Software Build Tools (something like this)).  Since 9.1 (and bugs from Quartus), nios ii sbt has become the official build tool. It offers more scripting power, no need to recompile the "system library", etc. Nios II IDE will be discontinued (to verify please).  On www.altera.com, in literature sections, you can found pdf that explain better than me.  I Think I'm right. Anybody else could confirm ?  Because of QUartus 9.1 bugs, I stick on 9.0sp2 (with Nios II IDE)