Advanced Modern C++ for Embedded Developers (C++11/14/17)

Course category
Training area
Course code
AC++11-501
Duration
5 days
Price exc VAT
£2900.00
Additional information
Our public course schedule is suspended until 2023. We can still offer this course on-site either remotely delivered or face-to-face.

The term ‘Modern C++’ is used to describe the current best practices for the use of C++.  In some cases, this may mean new capabilities of the language; in other cases it means more effective ways of performing familiar programming tasks.

This practical, hands-on course expands on the Modern C++ language for use on resource-constrained, real-time embedded applications. The course highlights areas of concern for real-time and embedded development.  The focus is on developing effective, maintainable and efficient C++ programs.

The course covers C++11, C++14 and C++17 and where relevant refers to C++20.

Course objectives:

  • To provide a deep understanding of the Modern C++ programming language.
  • To give you practical experience of writing Modern C++ for resource-constrained real-time and embedded systems.
  • To give you the confidence to apply these new concepts to your next project.

Delegates will learn:

  • Modern C++ syntax and semantics and idioms
  • Using C++ for hardware manipulation
  • The Application Binary Interface (ABI) and memory model of C++
  • Idioms and patterns for building effective C++ programs
  • Real-time and concurrency design issues

Pre-requisites:

  • A good working knowledge of Modern C++
  • Embedded development skills are useful, but not essential

Who should attend:

This course is aimed at experienced Modern C++ programmers who want to apply Modern C++ to a low-level/deeply-embedded target environment.

Duration:

Five days.

Course materials:

  • Delegate manual
  • Delegate workbook

Course workshop:

Attendees perform hands-on embedded programming, during course practicals.  Approximately 50% of the course is given over to practical work. The board targeted is an ARM Cortex-M based MCU which gives attendees a real sense of embedded application development.
 

The C++ object model

  • Declaration and definition
  • Brace initialisation syntax
  •  ODR-use and 'The One Declaration Rule'
  • Object scope and lifetime
  • The C++ object (memory) model

The C++ build process

  • The seven stages of compilation
  • Object files
  • Symbol tables
  • Linkage
  • ELF files
  • Object conversion for embedded systems

The C++ object model

  • Declaration and definition
  • Brace initialisation syntax
  • ODR-use and 'The One Declaration Rule'
  • Object scope and lifetime
  • The C++ object (memory) model

Expressions

  • Expressions
  • l-values and r-values
  • statements
  • Sequence points

User defined types

  • Aggregate types – structs
  • Brace elision
  • Classes
  • Non-Static Data Member Initialisers
  • Delegating constructors
  • std::initialize

Functions

  • Function call ABIs
  • Input, Output and Input-Output parameters
  • const correctness
  • Copy elision
  • Attributes

Type deduction

  • Automatic type deduction
  • Automatic function return-type deduction
  • Structured bindings
  • Using aliases

Constants

  • Literals
  • Const qualification
  • Constexpr
  • constexpr functions
  • enum class
  • enum underlying type

Hardware manipulation

  • Using pointers for I/O access
  • Bit manipulation
  • The volatile qualifier

Object-based I/O

  • Nested pointer approaches
  • Pointer-offset approaches
  • Structure overlay approaches

Composition

  • Nested object construction

Connecting objects

  • Unidirectional Associations
  • Bidirectional association
  • Forward declarations

Bit fields and unions

  • Bit field structures
  • Bit field structure overlay for hardware
  • The size of a bit field structure
  • Alignment issues
  • Unions
  • Using unions and bit field structures together

Creating substitutable types

  • Specialisation vs inheritance
  • Substitution
  • The Liskov Substitution principle
  • The virtual function ABI

Abstract Base Classes

  • The Single Responsibility principle
  • Pure virtual functions
  • Abstract types
  • Dynamic cast

Realising interfaces

  • The Dependency Inversion principle
  • The Interface concept
  • Pure virtual classes
  • The Interface Segregation principle

STL containers

  • The problems with C-style arrays
  • std::array
  • Dynamic sequence containers
  • Sets and maps
  • Hash-maps - std::unordered_map
  • Emplacement

Algorithms

  • The iterator model
  • Range-for 
  • Algorithms

Callable objects

  • Lambda expressions
  • The 'block-scoped function' concept
  • Generic lambdas
  • std::function

Resource management

  • The resource lifetime problem
  • Overloading the copy constructor
  • Overloading the assignment operator
  • The 'Rule of the Big Three'
  • The copy-swap idiom

Move semantics

  • The cost of copying
  • 'Resource pilfering'
  • Move constructors
  • The Rule of Four and A Half
  • Move assignment
  • std::move
  • Compiler overload provision for copy / swap

Smart pointers

  • The problem with raw pointers for memory management
  • std::unique_ptr
  • std::shared_ptr
  • std_weak_ptr

Template functions

  • The problems with function-like macros
  • Template functions
  • Template parameter type deduction
  • The forwarding reference idiom

Template classes

  • Generic classes
  • Template type deduction
  • Template deduction guidelines

Templates and polymorphism

  • The cost of virtual interfaces
  • Policy patterns

Perfect forwarding

  • Variadic templates
  • std::forward
  • std::forward vs std::move

Interrupts

  • The interrupt mechanism
  • Encapsulating an interrupt within a class
  • Race conditions

Trait classes

  • Making generic code more specific
  • Compile-time lookup
  • Trait classes
  • Trait classes vs auto

Appendices

Appendix - User defined literals

  • 'Rommable' types
  • operator ""

Appendix - Associative containers

  • std::set
  • std::map
  • std::unordered_map

Appendix - Variable types

  • std::optional
  • std::any
  • std::variant
  • The Visitor pattern

Appendix - STL allocators

  • Replacing the STL allocator
  • Memory resources
  • Standard library memory resources
  • Writing your own memory resources
  • Polymorphic allocators

Appendix - Exception handling

  • Error handling strategies
  • Throwing/catching exceptions
  • Building an exception hierarchy
  • Standard library exceptions
  • Specifying your exception contract

Appendix - Conditional coding

  • Using the pre-processor for conditional inclusion
  • Inline namespaces
  • Tag dispatch
  • SFINAE
  • std::enable_if
  • constexpr-if