What Actually is Embedded C/C++? Is it different from C/C++?

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What Actually is Embedded C? // There's a lot of misinformation out there about what embedded C actually is, how it is (or isn't) different from C, and I made this video to clear things up. I hope it helps.



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Welcome! I post videos that help you learn to program and become a more confident software developer. I cover beginner-to-advanced systems topics ranging from network programming, threads, processes, operating systems, embedded systems and others. My goal is to help you get under-the-hood and better understand how computers work and how you can use them to become stronger students and more capable professional developers.

About me: I'm a computer scientist, electrical engineer, researcher, and teacher. I specialize in embedded systems, mobile computing, sensor networks, and the Internet of Things. I teach systems and networking courses at Clemson University, where I also lead the PERSIST research lab.

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[ewout]

I would describe embedded C as 99% of the time reading your documentation and 1% programming :)

[datawolk]

I would like to see an more in depth video about linkerscripts!

[erickballesteros]

One of my project courses in CS, was actually embedded programming; we programmed chips to be calculators, serve as alarms, and even play music, and the overall structure felt a lot more comforting than regular C. I liked having all the linker files and macros cuz they just made me feel like I was coding in an environment.

[yournemesis]

RIP to the college student who contributed to this article

[aron]

Nice explanation! I have only one rule for embedded C/C++ vs others. If I'm dealing with embedded systems, I tend to stay far away from dynamic array allocations. But that may be because of the limited experience I have. The heap is scarce, and every time that I tried (string manipulations and complex math algorithms), I ran into hard faults (even with freeing pointers).

[belesiu]

Nice video. Surprised the Embedded C misinformation is out there. I’ve been using C for embedded systems since … um … the 80s (and that dates me). Back then, we used DOS based cross compilers and had to write our own standard C library and had to create our own header files for the hardware (it was an electrocardiograph based on an Intel 80376, a protected mode only version of the ‘386). We never really considered it a different C language, just regular C with a limited built in library. And we had different ways of writing into the HW registers, sometimes using linker scripts and other times just assigned pointers to physical addresses.

[gonzajuarez]

i'd like to see more about linker scripts. so far each time i see ".ld" i just know "that's the black box that joins stuff together" but the more i get into embedded and systems programming the more common they become, so it seems like a good time to understand a bit of that black box lol. Really like your channel. greetings from Argentina

[lilposte]

I am an embedded systems engineering student, i like your tutorials, i like your way of explaining, thank you very much mr jacob

[cleightthejw]

Yes, I would like to see some linker scripts videos, Jacob!! :)

[LogicEu]

Hey! Absolutely loved the last part, I had never seen that kind of embedded slang in C, would love to see more!

[jamesboby]

Great video as usual, Jacob. When you said "I'm not sure anyone has used borland C in the past you had me laughing my ass off. We still use borland C to learn C in colleges and universities in India to date. It's run in DOSbox. I do see the appeal of using it for educational purposes, as you can see the state of the registers and stuff much easier using the in-built debugging tools.

[mathemabeat]

Thank you for sharing this, I am an embedded firmware developer, and yes, is a usage of a old C, and not only that, you must be strong at Make and the linkerscript, a whole world on it, diferent architectures. Lot of fun.

[lewiscole]

Aside from linker scripts and defines, there's also the small matter of various libraries that are specific to a particular embedded processor or family of embedded processors.
I bring this up because it seems like neophyte C programmers seem to think that I/O functions like "printf" are a part of the C language (like "WRITE" is a part of the FORTRAN language) rather than a part of a library that can be replaced or omitted entirely depending on need.

[vijayk]

I started following u last month...i watched almost every video in ur channel... u r really doing great job mate👍

[szilagyimiklos]

Did you know that the first embedded system, the Apollo Guidance Computer, was developed for NASA's Apollo program in the 1960s? It used a custom-built assembly language, but modern embedded systems have come a long way since then! Today, we use Embedded C/C++ to program microcontrollers, enabling devices like IoT gadgets, drones, and even smart appliances. The key difference between regular C/C++ and Embedded C/C++ lies in the system constraints, like memory and processing power, that embedded systems have to work with. This makes writing efficient and optimized code a top priority for Embedded C/C++ developers!

[jgcooper]

Please more on linkers.
Say for example, if you were writing an old console game on C, would you be able to write a custom linker to manage the memory mapped resources?

[salsamancer]

The syntax of C doesn't change, but rather you need to rethink how you design your code. You're not building an app to execute on an OS, you're creating the firmware to run the entire machine.

[jorgeferreira]

Last time I used "Borland Turbo C" was on top of WinNT 4.0, for cross development for an MS-DOS based platform.
In case you are curious the MS-DOS based platform(s) were Norand/Intermec portable devices, the grand parents of modern tablets.
By that time, 1999, my goto programming tool for desktop development was C++ Builder 3, and some Visual Basic 5 when forced by my co-workers.

[siliconrobot]

4:31 I think I have an old version of DOS Borland Turbo C and Turbo assembler TASM and Turbo Pascal as well. I used to program my old DOS a lot with these high quality software and even made DOS graphic and mouse driven interfaces with them. I still using them in DOSBOX from time to time. I can send them to you if you still need them.

[doowi]

Embedded C is when you have switch statements instead of if-elses and the more switch statements you have the more embedded the C is.