Connecting a Pi to a Pi?

[Brian Beuken]

Why is easy...editing and compiling on one machine then sending to another to run and debuh is how all professional game coders work, Ideally use a Pc like they do, but its clear some people just hate the idea of using a windows pc, or can't afford it, so 2 Pis, gives another option

Why would you install raspberry on a pc?? Think you've misunderstood the intention.

I think building and using SCP or similar is the one of thebest options, code needs to be transferred, but then also need GDB to run on the target so that needs and SSH style connection and an IDE on the dev system thats receptive to it....

I still say, use a Pc..use the right tools for the job.

Well.. apart from compilation speed (that is the same if you use another Pi) the only reason I see to use two connected Pis is that the Ide use a lot of RAM.
Apart this I continue to prefer to use VNC to connect to mi Pi and develop/debug on the same.

Gabriele

Well consider also,mainly  I write games, so I need my full screen to be visialble in real time at all times, having the dev system control debugging means I can step through code easily and see the results on the target.
There would of course be no difference in compile speed, but easy of debugging is considerably improved.

Even with a PC, which is capable of much faster compile speeds, I prefer to do my compiles on target, and allow the make file to only compile changed files so its pretty effective. Since its the debugger and other runtime thngs that I want to see in action, which is just much harder if my IDE is on the running machne as well.

[GSalvato]

If I have well understood what you have written... it is exactly the result I have by using qtcreator in the target machine and VNC to connect to the same. Obviously I have two monitors: one connected directly to the target Pi and a second one (I'm cheating since I use a laptop) in the other PC (is an laptop with Ubuntu 18.04). In the HDMI monitor connected to the Pi I have my full gles window and in the VNC client window of my laptop I have the qtcreator window in which I can set breakpoints, see variables values, and so on (it uses gdb).

[jomoengineer]

Why is easy...editing and compiling on one machine then sending to another to run and debuh is how all professional game coders work, Ideally use a Pc like they do, but its clear some people just hate the idea of using a windows pc, or can't afford it, so 2 Pis, gives another option

Why would you install raspberry on a pc?? Think you've misunderstood the intention.

I think building and using SCP or similar is the one of thebest options, code needs to be transferred, but then also need GDB to run on the target so that needs and SSH style connection and an IDE on the dev system thats receptive to it....

I still say, use a Pc..use the right tools for the job.

Well, cross compiling from a more powerful system to an embedded device or an embedded linux device is quite common in the Embedded dev world and not specific to game dev.  It is also quite common to use a Virtual Machine on something like a PC or hosted on a VMWare server that has a dev OS and tools installed or even a Docker instance.

The recommendation is not to install a Raspberry Pi on a PC but the Raspbian OS so there is a common OS between the two devices.  

You may get away with some development on a Pi for a Pi, but the device is just not powerful enough for any large tasks and it was really never intended for such use.  

Good luck.

[Brian Beuken]

hmm again I think I must not be explaining myself well.

the reaons game coders use target systems is to allow real time view of data while the code is running on the tagrget, as well as stopped debugging to step through code and see the results on screen.
This may not always be possible on a single dev system as your game/project is running and can obscure your view of the debug and profile data, as well as taking up room and cycles you want dedicated to your projecty.

For that to work, you don't actually need power, I compil all my SBC projects on target, even though I have access to tool chains, but once compiled and run, they take over the target system and only send debug data to my Visual Studio debugger and profilers. I use toolchains for Switch and Sony systems. And on the rare occasions I write PC work I rely on running my debugger on one of my 3 screens.
The IDE itself dosn't need to run on an extremely powerful system, just fast enough to run a decent eitor and display the debugger. A network connection is needed and at a good speed.

So again its not about power,  or speed of compile, but ease of use and debugging that makes it a much better way to work.

Its just a better way to work, here's my workstation as an example, Raspberry displayed on the top screen, and the Raspberry is fully in control of the ap, Centre screen stepping through code, left screen with various debug windows, and right screen some reference material..

You just can't do that with only one machine.. You can't even do that with 2 Pi's but at least with 2 pi you'd have the centre screen and some of the debug windows docked to your IDE  display.

[jomoengineer]

Yeah, okay.