All preprocessor directives are not created equal. A developer will have different preprocessor directives available depending on whether GNU C, IAR Embedded Workbench, Keil uVision or any other compiler is used. ANSI-C has a limited number of preprocessor directives that are included in the standard and can be considered portable. Compiler vendors have the ability … Continue reading Tips and Tricks – Writing Portable Code using Compiler Intrinsics
One of the problems with developing embedded software using a windows based machine is that there is no GREP feature built into windows. Developers can use the Search or Find in Files feature that is part of their IDE but generally these features don’t have the power of GREP. Developers interested in a Windows based … Continue reading Tools – AstroGrep
Course Overview: The ability to remotely update embedded software to add features and fix bugs is a critical piece of many embedded systems. Bootloaders are normally small programs, but they often bring out the worst and nastiest bugs for a developer. There is a need to fully understand not just the system but also the … Continue reading CEC – Bootloader Design for Microcontrollers
The demands placed on developers to get results quickly can result in critical steps being skipped at the beginning of firmware implementation. In order to save time in the debugging phase, consider these ten suggestions as starting points before every writing any application code. 1) Setup a directory structure that includes but is not limited … Continue reading Embedded Basics – 10 Suggestions to kick-off a firmware project right
One of the greatest bug-squashing tools available to embedded software developers is the assertion macro in C. Despite the power of ASSERT, though, I rarely see it implemented and in the cases where it is used the implementation is either flawed or incorrect. The following tips should help elucidate not only when and where to … Continue reading Tips and Tricks – 8 tips for squashing bugs using assert in C