I have often talked and written about my thoughts on programming languages. In particular the fact that there really is no language that was designed with embedded programming specifically in mind. Historically, there was assembly language, but that is rarely used for large scale coding nowadays. Intel promoted PL/M many years ago, but that has fallen by the wayside.
C and C++ are the key languages … Read More
Tags: C, RTOS, EDGE Compiler, C++
If you are reading this blog, you are probably knowledgeable about embedded software and, therefore, like me, you consider yourself proficient in C. C is still the dominant language for embedded work. I read an article recently which espoused the view that “real men program in C” - I rather liked that. It also suggested that, since relatively few new graduates know C, there is an increasing shortage … Read More
Tags: C++, Optimization, EDGE Compiler
There is a paradox with programming languages. Everyone would agree that standardizing languages is a good thing, leading to portability of software and programming skills. But what if the resulting standard lacks features required by certain types of applications? One possible approach is to define a language specification that is so large that it encompasses every possible eventuality. In the late … Read More
Tags: C++, EDGE Compiler
If, like many embedded software developers, you need to work "close to the hardware", you will want to be able to visualize the bit patterns that map on to CPU and peripheral registers. The obvious way to do this is in binary, as you can see the 1s and 0s directly. However, I do not think that I have ever seen the option, even in assembly language, to include binary constants in software. Do feel free … Read More
Tags: Binary, Source Code, EDGE Compiler, C++
It is an interesting question: when do you need the source code in order to reuse some software and when would binary [i.e. a black box] be quite satisfactory? With an embedded operating system the answer is far from obvious. There is even a question as to what source code really is.
If you ask an engineer whether he would like to have the source code for an OS or any other reusable software, the … Read More
Tags: C++, DO-178B, Nucleus, Medical, Avionics, Certification, Source Code, Nucleus Kernel, RTOS
It would seem intuitive that writing in assembly language is the best possible option if you want the most optimal code in terms of size and/or speed. After all, assuming the programmer is smart and competent in the assembler for a particular CPU and understands its architecture well enough, and he has been fully appraised of the functional requirements of the code, the only possible result is code … Read More
Tags: C++, EDGE Compiler