Some inspiration for embedded developers
I am about to take a little bit of vacation around the Easter period. I will be visiting the United States. This is not unusual, as I have been to the US 60-70 times [I have lost count!] over the years. However, it is the first time when there is no plan to do anything work related. Last time I attempted a US vacation, I was invited to travel down to Mississippi to present at a sales conference; nothing like that will happen this time!
As I am in pre-vacation mode, I thought that I would share some sources of inspiration about embedded software [and life] …
I enjoy finding good quotations. It is not that I am too lazy to have my own ideas. I just enjoy some people’s ability to capture an idea or concept in a few, well-chosen words. All of these have, I hope, some relevance to embedded software development:
Bad programmers worry about code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships. – Linus Torvalds
You need to write code that minimizes the time it would take someone else to understand it—even if that someone else is you. – From The Art of Readable Code
There is no limit to how bad undefined behavior can be. – Greg Davis, GHS, talking about MISRA C at Embedded World 2017
Learn to love your debugger. You’re going to spend a lot of time with it. – Jack Ganssle, some years ago. This is still good advice.
The perfect is the enemy of the good. – Voltaire (possibly)
The problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle. – Joe Armstrong, the creator of Erlang
Don’t comment bad code – rewrite it. – Brian W. Kernighan – stolen from Jack Ganssle
Theoretically, Software is the only component that can be perfect, and this should always be our starting point. – Jesse Poore, IEEE Computer January 2004 – stolen from Jack Ganssle
A goal is a dream with a deadline. – Napolean Hill
The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine. – Abraham Lincoln
