Introduction to C++ Programming for Embedded and Application Developers

Brief History of C++

• Early C++ (translation of C++ code to C code)
• C++ as an extension of C
• Non object-oriented C++ enhancements to basic C
• C++ as an evolving language and the development of the ANSI C++ standard
• Possible memory and performance costs of using C++ in embedded applications
• EC++ as a subset of C++ for use in the implementation of resource constrained embedded systems

The C in C++

• Base data types (numeric char, integer and floating point types)
• Pointers and arrays
• Function prototypes and function pointers
• structs , pointers to structs and dynamic data structures
• typedefs, enums and macros
• I/O in C
• Replacing C based I/O (printf, scanf etc) with C++ based I/O

Functions in C++

• Function overloading
• Name mangling / decorating
• Mixing C and C++ code modules (use of extern C)
• Operators and operator overloading in C++

Key Object Orientated Concept - Classes and Instances

• Member variables and member functions (private, public, protected)
• Constructors and destructors
• Default constructors and default destructors
• Initialiser lists
• Derived classes
• Arrays of classes
• UML class diagram notation

More advanced aspects of working with classes and instances

• Copy constructors
• Deep vs. shallow copying
• Virtual functions and virtual classes (compile time vs. run time binding)
• Implementing dynamic data structures using classes (linked lists, binary trees, etc)
• Friend classes and friend functions
• Static member variables and static member functions
• Templates and the Standard Template Library

A more detailed look at input and output in C++

• The C++ iostream classes
• Overloading the insertion and extraction operators for use with user defined classes
• Reading and writing files
• Basics of object and data persistence

Dynamic memory management

• The new and delete operators
• Overloading the new and delete operators
• Application specific memory management

Exception Handling

• The concept and structure of exceptions and exception handling
• Throwing an exception
• The try block
• Catching an exception
• Re-throwing exceptions
• Catch-all handlers
• Exception specifications
• Exception handling implemention mechanisms
• Appropriateness of exception handling in embedded applications
• Alternatives to the C++ exception handling mechanism

Templates and their uses

• Data parameterised collections of classes and functions
• How C++ compilers handle templates
• The C++ Standard Template Library - a brief overview
• The Boost C++ libraries - a brief overview

Namespaces - an extra level of scoping

• usefulness of namespaces in large projects and when re-using code

Mixed C and C++ applications and extern CMixed C++, C and assembler applications

• Calling assembler from C
• Calling assembler from C++

Overview of EC++

• Benefits of C++
• Limitations of C++

C++ and Embedded and Operating System C API issues

• Patterns and idioms for accessing hardware from C++
• Patterns and idioms for bit manipulation in C++
• C++ embedded system programming idioms and patterns
• Polling techniques for synchronous I/O
• Interrupt driven techniques for I/O
• Implementing a low level interrupt handler in C++ for an operating-system-less application
• Implementing a simple timer-driven scheduler in C++
• Idioms and patterns for wrapping C operating system APIs in C++ (Inter Process Communication and Task Management)
• Thread, semaphore, pipe, task, timer, monitor and shared memory classes
• Implementing a simple timer-driven scheduler in C++
• Device driver class hierarchies

Compiler Specific Extensions to C++

• Accessing Special Function Registers (SFRs)
• #pragma s
• Compiler-specific non-ANSI C++ extensions