Web developers can leverage a nearly infinite ecosystem of libraries and tools to triangulate their desired behavior. On the other hand, embedded systems require simplicity and precision to map physical chunks of hardware to their specific tasks.
At 8th Light, we place the highest priority on quality, teaching others to craft sustainable and reliable systems. In many ways these practices are only catching up to the reliability and durability of embedded solutions. With the work more narrowly defined and focused on specific outcomes, embedded programmers have spent the last five decades refining their approach in a more focused way than the sprawling web development sphere.
In this talk, 8th Light principal crafter Chris Wilson dives into embedded development from the perspective of someone who’s worked primarily on the web. He introduces some of the key concepts and constraints that inform code architecture, and draws out some corollaries for web development — interrupts are like async callbacks, and choosing and configuring modules is akin to linking and bundlers.
This talk goes beyond this conceptual overview, as Chris also walks through the implementation for a custom Pomodoro timer device that he began building during an online class.
Join the Dialogue
Resources shared during this talk:
- Adafruit IO - projects & tutorials
- Wokwi online simulator
- 3-part course on microcontrollers, RTOS
- Amazon’s version of FreeRTOS
- Prototype to Product (book)
- “Practical UML Statecharts in C/C++” (book)
- “Making Embedded Systems” (book)
- Make Magazine - tutorials, diagrams, articles
- Andreas Spiess - tutorials & wireless
- “Making Embedded Systems” Classpert course
About 8th Light University
8th Light University (8LU) is a virtual event series curated by 8th Light, a global software consultancy that partners with clients in creating software solutions. Topics focus on improving the craft of software product, design, and development. Software professionals of all skill levels are welcome! Watch past event videos on YouTube, join us at our next 8LU event, or sign up for our newsletter to to find out about upcoming events.