364: All the Abstractions

Jacob Beningo spoke with us about embedded systems, conference talks, writing articles and books, and best practices in development. Jacob is a consultant and instructor, see his website for more details (beningo.com).

Jacob is one of the organizers of the Embedded Online Conference, May 18,19, and 20. Session times is generally noted in Eastern Time (Americas). A coupon code for a discount on registration is in the show. Jacob will be giving a talk called Best Practices for RTOS Application Design.

He likes the full visibility of tracing, using the Segger J-Trace with SystemView or Precipio.

Jacob has written three books:

• MicroPython Projects: A do-it-yourself guide for embedded developers to build a range of applications using Python

• Reusable Firmware Development: A Practical Approach to APIs, HALs and Drivers

• API Standard for MCUs

He’s also written many articles for Embedded.com as well as his own blog.

He recommends the IEEE Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK). The SWEBOK is a free download from IEEE, which covers the best practices that engineers should be following when they develop software along with processes and strategies.

Jacob also recommends Renesas’ Synergy Software Quality Handbook that describes the processes that they used to develop and validate their software.

218: Neutron Star of Dev Boards

Dirk Akeman of SEGGER (@SEGGERMicro) joined us to talk about debugger specifics.

• Ozone standalone debugger for use with J-Links
• SystemView visualization tool for RTOS and system debugging
• Jlink Products
• Turning an ST-Link on a development board into a J-Link

We recently did two other shows on debugging: a general intro with Alvaro Prieto and one with a focus on the development-system’s debugger software interface with Pierre-Marie de Rodat.

Herd immunity and find a flu shot

And, yes, we did bleep Dirk's answer for favorite processor because he later reconsidered the idea that he only had one favorite.