Abstract

For nearly 35 years I have been working with small processors and there has always been deep divides between practitioners of languages. When writing assembly we ridiculed those using C and when I spent years microcoding we scoffed at everyone. However, nearly all groups continue to wag their heads at the shameful C++ programmers attempting to twist their tools toward the small.

Recent language developments have made C++ the obvious choice for many embedded projects; nevertheless, the toxic environment extends past reddit roasts into poor vendor support of tools and nearly obstructionist chip manufacturers.

This session will use a bare-metal project started in 2018 for a Ciere client as a case study while we work through the decision process for using C++, the acrobatics required to support the language, recent language features that enable goals of size, speed, and expressiveness, and useful libraries.

While the examples will be based on a concrete project, the extracted lessons-learned should be applicable to many embedded projects (bare-metal and small-OS). Attendees will walk away with motivations to use C++ in embedded projects, hints and tips to making tools work, and a sampling of language features and idioms that improve the quality of a final product.