> Is the mbed device is capable of being programmed with Rowley's Crossworks or similar
> IDE that uses a generic FT2322R target interface?
No, the only mechanism for programming mbed is to drop a binary onto the flash drive.
> I realize the whole point of mbed and its awesomeness is the online compiler and drag &
> drop flashing, and I certainly plan to make use of that initially. However I might like to
> move up to the hobby version of Crossworks once I get more comfortable with things.
> Although I would not expect you folks to directly support that approach, it would be cool
> if the hardware is at least capable of using offline compilers and/or flash utilities.
As you point out the advantages of mbed are the libraries, online compiler and drag and drop programming. Moving to an offline compiler and wanting to use a serial bootloader takes away these key benefits. If you are looking to use an offline compiler and conventional programming methods, there are lots of offline compilers and development boards available, and they might be more appropriate.
>What development tools do you guys use to develop the API & firmware used with the mbed device?
The mbed libraries and APIs were written using the online compiler, and the interface chip firmware was developed using uVision from Keil.
> Is the mbed device is capable of being programmed with Rowley's Crossworks or similar
> IDE that uses a generic FT2322R target interface?
No, the only mechanism for programming mbed is to drop a binary onto the flash drive.
> I realize the whole point of mbed and its awesomeness is the online compiler and drag &
> drop flashing, and I certainly plan to make use of that initially. However I might like to
> move up to the hobby version of Crossworks once I get more comfortable with things.
> Although I would not expect you folks to directly support that approach, it would be cool
> if the hardware is at least capable of using offline compilers and/or flash utilities.
As you point out the advantages of mbed are the libraries, online compiler and drag and drop programming. Moving to an offline compiler and wanting to use a serial bootloader takes away these key benefits. If you are looking to use an offline compiler and conventional programming methods, there are lots of offline compilers and development boards available, and they might be more appropriate.
>What development tools do you guys use to develop the API & firmware used with the mbed device?
The mbed libraries and APIs were written using the online compiler, and the interface chip firmware was developed using uVision from Keil.