Hi David,
If you want the drag and drop programming and virtual COM port, it sounds like you need to use an mbed in the final product :-)
Serisouly though, using the target in its bare metal form is great from a cost reduction point of view, but with reduced cost comes reduced functionality.
If you wanted to build a board that used the LPC1768 in its raw format, it could still be possible to reprogram using one of the LPC In System Programming (ISP) tools that are available, like Flash Magic www.flashmagictool.com.
As ISP uses a serial port, addition of something like and FTDI USB-RS232 part, you could have a USB virtual COM port, which you could also reprogram the part over. Although i've not tried that, it does seem sensible.
You'd not have to send source to everyone, just send the binary, as you would do if they were all using an mbed.
Cheers,
Chris
I just got my mbed in and it did work great as a startup. One big show-stopper I can see is a lack of a schematic and and extra mysterious chip on the bottom of the board. As a developer, it is nice to try something out quickly. But if I want to make say 10 to 100 prototypes to show around, I have to buy 10 to 100 of the $100 boards. In most development situations, we buy an existing off the shelf board and then develop a stripped down version in-house to do any production.
Even if you just want to make a few for your friends, I guess they better be $100 friends!
I am hoping I missed something. Say it ins't so somebody.