In embedded software design it is common to want to have the code footprint as small as possible. Therefore, it is fairly common when using the GNU C++ compiler to use the -O2 option which includes the -O optimization flags plus a whole slew of others. You would think that the best optimization is always [...]
Many moons ago I recall reading an article in one of the better-known PC mags about how to re-install Windows 98. The article suggested wiping the hard drive clean and doing a complete re-install about every 6 months. The sad part is that I was one of those people who needed such an article. Many [...]
A lot of developers work exclusively with IDEs and GUI front ends for debuggers and the like. While I don’t have any problem with those tools, I prefer to use the command line; mainly because I sometimes work remotely and trying to use VNC doesn’t work well in all cases. If I use [...]
This is not a topic that is usually talked about outside of embedded systems circles. The reason being that most microprocessors now have floating point units and, consequently, floating point operations are not a problem. Even some modern embedded processors have FPUs and even integrated DSP cores but the developer doesn’t always have the luxury [...]
