Customer Reviews

C Programming for Embedded Systems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I picked this book in hopes it would satisfy some of my requirements for a class I am teaching at ITT Tech. Alas, I found this book not suitable for learning at any level. I found the book lacking in content and worst I found the book to use some very obvious cheap tricks. The book is not 196 pages as stated but including every single page (including all blank pages) to be 192 pages. In reality it has only 118 pages of "content" until it goes into the Appendices. The lack of meaningful content, large type face (I thought only grade school kids wrote in large letters to build bulk) on very few pages got me to investigate. I went to my personal library of Motorola literature and dusted off all my books pertaining to 8- and 16-bit microcontrollers. I then went to the Motorola site (www.motorola.com then go from there) and looked up all related and pertinent reference material and found for FREE all I needed and then some. I don't like giving anyone a bad review, for the simple reason that it takes a tremendous commitment to write a book. Saying that, in all my years working in the industry and teaching technical classes this is the first time a book has made me angry. I sent it back. Write a 2nd edition and add real content and explanations that explain then you might have something. Also, please give Motorola credit where credit is due.

One of the most important things an embedded assembly programmer coming into C needs to know is how to set up absolute memory addressing without resorting to compiler-specific features or assembly language. This book resorts to compiler-specific #pragma directives to fit its chosen chip and OS. The fact that we might want to use _no_ OS and a non-Bytecraft compiler is not something that seems to have crossed the author's mind. Much better to shell out the extra ten bucks for Ted Van Sickle's _Programming Microcontrollers in C_. That one is Motorola-oriented but at least has the common decency to explain how to set up ports and peripherals within the ANSI C language proper.

This book turned out to be useful to me. I am a student taking an embedded systems course programming only in assembly. I have programmed in C only on the PC before. I have gained some confidence in programming C for embedded systems, since this is the first time I have done so using C. I think this book helped me in the transition from Assembly to C. Most of the explanations were straitforward and easy to follow.

I found a couple bugs in the programs printed in the book (inexcusable for published work). The code was ok for the code on the CD they provided however. The code was not commented well either.

Another problem is how many of the topics are barely scratched. This book lacks depth.

In conclusion, this book is a decent intro to C programming for embedded systems (I am more confident in programming for embedded systems than when I started), but I dont see much use for somebody with any more experience. I probably will never open this book again. The source code may be useful to me as a student.

why didn't you say that this book is about only for 705j1a and bytecraft compiler.we think that this book is looking like a catalog not a c programming for embedded systems book!

"C Programming for Embedded Systems" promised to be an extremely useful book for those interested in embedded systems however, its scope is so limited that it proves to be close to useless. If you want a very basic introduction to programming motorolas simplest embedded processors then this book is for you. For the rest of us however, the amount of useful material relevant to all chips is probably about 30 pages and if you don't know the material covered here, you probably shouldn't be wanting to program embedded systems.

For a better book, buy a book on PIC assembler, it will prove to be much more useful in the long run. The best method to start programming embedded systems: look for projects and documentation on the internet. Your time will be much better spect there than with this book.

This book lacked any real depth in embedded systems,
I was disappointed, I have used byte craft's compiler
for the cop processor and found the manual very helpful,
though this book I suggest is only suitable as quick
reference.

"C Programming for Embedded Systems" is a fantastic book for those who are already familiar with C programming. This book shows how C can be used to write code for an 8 bit microcontroller - Motorola's workhorse of the industry, the 6805. The thermostat project is well documented including a full schematic and real pictures of the completed circuit on the CD. The CD also includes ByteCraft's C compiler and project source code. The project simulates a heating/cooling system with an LCD display, keypad, thermistor, and a fan and light bulb to simulate heating and cooling. The project also makes use of Motorola's MC68HC705JICS emulator (available from DigiKey). This book is meant to be only part of a comprehensive education in embedded programming, and makes no claims to be an in depth volume on the subject. In conclusion, this is a great book to make one aware of the issues and challenges in writing code in C for 8 bit embedded systems as well as gaining experience on one of Motorola's most popular processors.

Though the author's heart is surely in the right place, this book suffers from an over-simplification of the problem. Writing embedded software is not easy. A big part of the complexity is that every development environment (specific combination of cross compiler, debugging tools, target processor, etc.) is unique. By focusing the content of this book only on the cross compiler produced by his employer (ByteCraft), any generality is lost. The result is a book that's good as a user's manual for those using the ByteCraft compiler but not so good for others.

And I am not from Canada ... in the case our friend was wondering.

I wish I had not spent money on this, what a waste of time.