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C++ in Embedded Systems A practical transition from C to modern C++ (Amar Mahmutbegovic) (z-library.sk, 1lib.sk, z-lib.sk)

Author Amar Mahmutbegovic

c++
Language English

Transitioning from C can be daunting, with concerns about performance overhead, added complexity, and unfamiliar tooling. Addressing these challenges, Amar Mahmutbegovic, an advocate for modern C++ in embedded development, shows you how to harness zero-cost abstractions, compile-time checks, and powerful modern C++ capabilities to preserve performance while achieving safer, cleaner code. This book bridges the gap between traditional C and advanced C++, helping you retain the efficiency C developers demand while unlocking the safety and expressiveness of modern C++. Starting with a modern development environment setup, including a Docker container for seamless example replication, you'll overcome the hurdles of using the C++ standard library in memory-constrained settings and get acquainted with the Embedded Template Library (ETL) as an alternative. The book walks you through essential C++ concepts before exploring advanced topics such as templates, strong typing, error handling, compile-time computation, and RAII. Through practical examples, you'll implement a sequencer, write a type-safe HAL, and apply patterns like Command, State, and Observer to solve common embedded development problems. By the end of this book, you'll have learned how to apply modern C++ to develop robust, modular firmware with performance matching or exceeding hand-coded C solutions.

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C++ in Embedded Systems A practical transition from C to modern C++ Amar Mahmutbegović
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C++ in Embedded Systems Copyright © 2025 Packt Publishing All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews. The author acknowledges the use of cutting-edge AI, such as ChatGPT, with the sole aim of enhancing the language and clarity within the book, thereby ensuring a smooth reading experience for readers. It’s important to note that the content itself has been crafted by the author and edited by a professional publishing team. Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book. Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information. Portfolio Director: Rohit Rajkumar Relationship Lead: Tanisha Mehrotra Project Manager: Sandip Tadge Content Engineer: Rashi Dubey Technical Editor: Tejas Mhasvekar Copy Editor: Safis Editing Indexer: Pratik Shirodkar Proofreader: Rashi Dubey Production Designer: Shankar Kalbhor Growth Leads: Namita Velgekar and Lee Booth First published: July 2025 Production reference: 1060625 Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Grosvenor House 11 St Paul’s Square Birmingham B3 1RB, UK. ISBN 978-1-83588-114-9 www.packtpub.com
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To my wife, Ferisa, and to my parents, Safet and Enisa, for their love and support. – Amar
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Foreword In this book, C++ in Embedded Systems, Amar Mahmutbegović shows you how to apply modern C++ for embedded systems. These systems must often run in constrained environments, with limited CPU power, memory, and electrical power, and must satisfy strict requirements for timing and reliability. They may need to avoid programming practices such as recursion and dynamic memory management. C has long been the language of choice for embedded systems. However, C++ offers more ex- pressive abstractions and design paradigms, better type safety, and better resource and memory safety, while retaining the low-level hardware access of C. You may have been reluctant to use C++ because of past concerns about its suitability for embedded systems. The language and its compilers have evolved over the decades to eliminate those concerns. Better type- and memo- ry-safety mean the compiler finds more errors at compile time without runtime overhead. Amar takes you through the features of modern C++ (through C++23) that achieve these improve- ments. These include techniques such as static and dynamic binding, dynamic and compile-time polymorphism, templates and metaprogramming, resource management, and compile-time computation, as well as patterns and principles that support robust design. He provides simple, practical examples written from the perspective of an experienced embedded systems developer. He shows you how to use tools such as Compiler Explorer and Renode to examine the generated machine code and simulate embedded targets to convince yourself that these methods deliver on their promises. The methods you learn here will help you build more reliable, flexible, maintainable, reusable, adaptable, and efficient embedded systems. Steve Branam Senior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Robotics
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Contributors About the author Amar Mahmutbegović is the co-founder and head of engineering at Semblie, where he leads the utilization of modern C++ for firmware development. His expertise extends to working on BLE consumer devices and medical devices, delivering sophisticated solutions for a wide range of clients, including start-ups. Amar’s dedication to innovation helps bring electronic product ideas to the world. Amar actively shares C++ benefits in the embedded community via blogs and LinkedIn. He also mentors young engineers, enhancing their skills in modern development practices. His work aims to make embedded systems more accessible, maintainable, and scalable, bridging the gap between traditional methods and modern efficiencies for developers worldwide. My deepest thanks go to my wife, friend, and the love of my life, Ferisa Živčić, for putting up with me over the past year. Writing a book while working a full-time job took up much of my free time and energy, and I’m endlessly grateful for her patience, understanding, and support. I am grateful to have the best parents, Enisa and Safet. They taught me the importance of learning and hard work and guided me with strong moral values. Big thanks to all my family, friends, and colleagues who supported me and helped in any way.
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About the reviewers Dirk Jan ten Kate is a senior embedded software engineer with over 15 years of experience in embedded systems, specializing in automotive and gas measuring industries. At his current employer, he developed a modular, hardware-independent firmware platform that forms the foundation for all new products. Dirk Jan is passionate about software quality, driving the adop- tion of test-driven development and continuous integration practices. His expertise spans system design, microcontroller development, RTOS, CAN, BLE, high-level communication protocols, low-level serial protocols, and programming in C and C++. Rugved Hattekar is a skilled engineer with a strong background in embedded systems, robotics, and autonomous vehicle technology. He has developed software for safety-critical systems using C/C++, with a focus on hardware-software integration, sensor fusion, and real-time performance. At GPR, Inc., he contributed to vehicle localization and mapping systems using ground-penetrat- ing radar. At Luminar Technologies, he works as a senior Lidar software developer specializing in embedded digital signal processing for Lidar sensors. Rugved brings deep technical insight into embedded C++ applications that drive advanced sensing and autonomous vehicle technologies. Jacob Beningo helps embedded teams modernize their architecture, development processes, and skills to deliver high-quality, real-time systems. With two decades of experience and over 100 projects completed, he provides expert training, consulting, and coaching through Beningo Embedded Group and the Embedded Software Academy.
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Preface C++ is a general-purpose, multi-paradigm programming language, supporting procedural, ob- ject-oriented, and, to some extent, functional programming paradigms. It started out as C with classes, but over time it transformed into a modern language that enables writing highly expres- sive code without sacrificing performance. Despite this, C remains the dominant language in embedded development, primarily due to its simplicity and gentler learning curve. However, the simplicity of C often makes writing complex systems overly verbose, increasing the cognitive burden on developers and making code more error-prone. This is where C++ excels. With features such as generic programming, runtime and compile-time polymorphism, compile-time computation, and enhanced type and memory safety, it is a superb choice for embedded system development. Myths about C++, such as code bloat and runtime overhead, are still widespread. This book begins by debunking these misconceptions and guiding you through C++ fundamentals. It then shifts focus to more advanced modern C++ concepts, applying them to solve real-world problems in embedded development. The goal of this book is to show you how modern C++ can be effectively used in embedded sys- tems through carefully selected examples and by applying good software development practices. Who this book is for This book is for embedded developers who mainly use C in their daily jobs and would like to discover modern C++. Some familiarity with C++ is expected but not necessary, as the book also covers C++ basics. What this book covers Chapter 1, Debunking Common Myths About C++, explores widespread misconceptions about C++ and systematically debunks them. You will also gain insight into the history of C++ and the ze- ro-overhead principle.
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Prefacexviii Chapter 2, Challenges in Embedded Systems with Limited Resources, examines the design challeng- es faced in resource-constrained embedded systems, with a focus on profiling techniques and memory management. It also shows how to avoid potentially problematic language features such as exceptions and RTTI. Chapter 3, Embedded C++ Ecosystem, reviews the tools available for C++ development in the em- bedded domain, including toolchains, static analyzers, profiling tools, and testing frameworks. Chapter 4, Setting Up the Development Environment for a C++ Embedded Project, walks you through setting up a modern development environment for C++ embedded projects, including using a simulator to test your code in a virtual setting. Chapter 5, Classes – Building Blocks of C++ Applications, guides you through understanding classes in C++, including storage duration and initialization and inheritance and dynamic polymorphism. Chapter 6, Beyond Classes – Fundamental C++ Concepts, covers fundamental C++ features such as namespaces and function overloading. It also discusses interoperability with C and introduces standard library containers and algorithms. Chapter 7, Strengthening Firmware – Practical C++ Error Handling Methods, goes through various error handling techniques in C++, including error codes, asserts, and global handlers. It also explains the mechanics of exceptions and how they work. Chapter 8, Building Generic and Reusable Code with Templates, goes through templates and concepts. It also provides an introduction to template metaprogramming and compile-time polymorphism. Chapter 9, Improving Type-Safety with Strong Types, discusses implicit and explicit type conversions in C++ and introduces the concept of strong types. A practical example from an embedded library demonstrates how to improve type safety. Chapter 10, Writing Expressive Code with Lambdas, introduces lambdas and shows you how to use them within a command design pattern to implement an expressive interrupt manager. Chapter 11, Compile-Time Computation, explores C++’s compile-time computation capabilities and demonstrates how to use them to build a signal generator library that generates lookup tables at compile time. Chapter 12, Writing C++ HAL, demonstrates the implementation of HAL in C++, using tem- plate-metaprogramming to ensure type-safety.
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Preface xix Chapter 13, Working with C Libraries, shows how to effectively use C libraries in C++ projects. It demonstrates the RAII principle in an example of using a filesystem C library. Chapter 14, Enhancing Super-Loop with Sequencer, shows how to improve simple super-loop-based designs using a sequencer. It also introduces the Embedded Template Library (ETL) and its container class templates with fixed sizes known at compile time. Chapter 15, Practical Patterns – Building a Temperature Publisher, guides you through the Observer design pattern and demonstrates how to apply it in systems such as thermostats and HVAC controllers. Chapter 16, Designing Scalable Finite State Machines, explores different ways to implement finite state machines. It begins with a basic enum-switch approach, introduces the State design pattern, and then presents the Boost.SML library. Chapter 17, Libraries and Frameworks, highlights parts of the C++ Standard Template Library that are useful for firmware development in constrained systems. It also features the CIB and Pigweed libraries. Chapter 18, Cross-Platform Development, discusses the importance of good software design for achieving portability and testability in embedded software. To get the most out of this book Many examples in the book can be run in Compiler Explorer (https://godbolt.org/). Use it to observe the assembly output of the compiler. Experiment with the examples, tweak them, and compile them with different optimization levels and compiler flags to understand how those changes affect the compiler output. Most of the examples can also be run in the Renode simulator. The book is accompanied by a Docker container, which includes the GCC toolchain and the Renode simulator, enabling you to run the code in an embedded target simulation. Software/hardware covered in the book Operating system requirements Docker Windows, macOS, or Linux If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code from the book’s GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section) Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code
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