{"id":8964,"date":"2019-04-15T09:17:09","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T08:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=8964"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:56:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:56:57","slug":"some-inspiration-for-embedded-developers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2019\/04\/15\/some-inspiration-for-embedded-developers\/","title":{"rendered":"Some inspiration for embedded developers"},"content":{"rendered":"

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!<\/p>\n

As I am in pre-vacation mode, I thought that I would share some sources of inspiration about embedded software [and life] \u2026<\/p>\n

I enjoy finding good quotations. It is not that I am too lazy to have my own ideas. I just enjoy some people\u2019s 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:<\/p>\n

Bad programmers worry about code. Good programmers worry about data structures and their relationships.<\/strong> \u2013 Linus Torvalds<\/p>\n

You need to write code that minimizes the time it would take someone else to understand it\u2014even if that someone else is you.<\/strong> – From The Art of Readable Code<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no limit to how bad undefined behavior can be.<\/strong> – Greg Davis, GHS, talking about MISRA C at Embedded World 2017<\/p>\n

Learn to love your debugger. You\u2019re going to spend a lot of time with it.<\/strong> – Jack Ganssle, some years ago. This is still good advice.<\/p>\n

The perfect is the enemy of the good.<\/strong> – Voltaire (possibly)<\/p>\n

The problem with object-oriented languages is they\u2019ve 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.<\/strong> – Joe Armstrong, the creator of Erlang<\/p>\n

Don’t comment bad code – rewrite it.<\/strong> – Brian W. Kernighan – stolen from Jack Ganssle<\/p>\n

Theoretically, Software is the only component that can be perfect, and this should always be our starting point.<\/strong> – Jesse Poore, IEEE Computer January 2004 – stolen from Jack Ganssle<\/p>\n

A goal is a dream with a deadline.<\/strong> – Napolean Hill<\/p>\n

The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that you can never know if they are genuine.<\/strong> – Abraham Lincoln<\/p>\n

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