Modern C++ for Embedded Systems (C++11/14/17)

Course category
Training area
Course code
C++11-501
Duration
5 days
Price exc VAT
£3000.00

C++ is a remarkably powerful systems-programming language, combining multiple programming paradigms – Procedural, Object Oriented and Generic – with a small, highly-efficient run-time environment. This makes it a strong candidate for building complex high-performance embedded systems.

The C++11 standard marked a fundamental change to the C++ language, introducing new idioms and more effective ways to build systems.  This new style of programming is referred to as ‘Modern C++’.

This practical, hands-on course introduces the 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.

Overview:

A five-day course that provides a practical overview of C++ focusing on developing object-oriented programs in an embedded, real-time environment.

Course objectives:

  • To provide a solid understanding of the essentials of the 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

Pre-requisites:

  • A strong working knowledge of C
  • Embedded development skills are useful, but not essential

Who should attend: 

This course is aimed at C programmers who are moving to C++ for their embedded development.

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.

Program structure

  • "Hello World!"
  • The build process
  • Object files
  • Linking Activities

Stream I/O

  • C++ stream I/O objects
  • Stream modifiers

The C++ object model

  • Objects and types
  • Brace initialisation
  • Object visibility scope
  • Object lifetime

Constants

  • Literals
  • Compile-time constant expressions
  • Enum classes

Pointers

  • Dynamic objects
  • The value of an ‘empty’ pointer
  • Pointers and const

Hardware manipulation

  • Memory-mapped registers are accessed via pointers
  • volatile objects
  • Bitwise Operators
  • General Purpose Input / Output (GPIO)

Structures

  • User-defined types
  • Packing
  • Performance implications of packing

Arrays

  • Containers
  • The iterator model
  • Range-for statement
  • Applying algorithms to arrays – filling and sorting

Functions

  • The 'One Declaration Rule'
  • How function arguments are passed
  • The overheads of pass-by-value
  • Pass-by-reference
  • std::tuple represents a general n-tuple
  • Function overloading
  • Function inlining

Structuring code

  • Separating Interface and Implementation
  • Compilation Dependencies
  • Using the __cplusplus macro

Namespaces

  • Defining functions within a namespace
  • Ambiguity when accessing namespace members

Principles of Object Oriented Design

  • Coupling
  • Encapsulation
  • Cohesion
  • The Single Responsibility Principle
  • Abstraction

User-defined types

  • Creating new types
  • Access specifiers
  • 'this' pointer

Initialising objects

  • Non-Static Data Member Initializers (NSDMIs)
  • The compiler-supplied default constructor
  • The class destructor

Objects and functions

  • Pass-by-value
  • Explicit constructors
  • Disabling pass-by-value
  • Disabling copying
  • Return Value Optimisation (RVO)
  • 'Copy elision'

Static

  • The static storage specifier
  • Static member variables
  • Static member functions

Object-based I/O

  • An Object-Oriented approach to I/O
  • Using a struct for I/O device access
  • Nesting a structure overlay in a class

Operator overloading

  • Problem domain types
  • Overloading the stream operator
  • Conversions to other user-defined types

Building composite objects

  • Composite aggregation
  • Overriding default initialisers
  • The composite object on the stack...

Connecting objects

  • Connected objects form a system
  • Forming the Association (Client-Server)
  • Bi-directional associations…
  • Friend functions
  • Forward references to namespace elements

Creating Substitutable Objects

  • Specialisation
  • Inheritance
  • Overriding base class behaviour
  • The 'protected interface'
  • The Liskov Substitution Principle
  • Late binding (of polymorphic operations)
  • Dynamic binding

Abstract Base Classes

  • An abstract class
  • Extending derived classes
  • Safely accessing the extended interface

Realising Interfaces

  • The Dependency Inversion Principle
  • Provided and Required Interfaces
  • The Interface Segregation Principle
  • Cross-casting

Dynamic objects

  • Memory model
  • std::unique_ptr allows single ownership
  • std::shared_ptr is reference-counted
  • std::weak_ptr
  • Resolving circular dependency issues

Dynamic containers

  • Sequence containers
  • std::vector is a dynamically-resizable array
  • std::list is a doubly-linked list
  • Key-value containers – std::pair
  • Sorted containers
  • Containers and memory allocation


Callable objects

  • Function objects
  • Lambdas
  • Under the hood
  • Using std::function for call-back
  • Containers of callable objects

Initializer lists

  • std::initializer_list
  • initializer_list overload rules

Template functions

  • Generic programming
  • Function templates
  • Overloading with template functions

Template classes

  • Class templates
  • Lazy instantiation
  • Member Functions of Class Templates