Re: STM32F4 Discovery, communication and libraries

[Roy Emmerich <roy.emmerich@gmail.com>]

On Thursday, 28 August 2014 03:48:59 UTC+2, Dennis Lee Bieber  wrote:

> 	I wasn't referring to the three you mentioned -- but rather to your
> plaint that you wanted libraries for accessing various communications
> devices, etc.
> 
> 	THOSE libraries are probably being written for proprietary products in
> support of a higher level (though still minimal) OS --
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_modular_avionics -- The OS is in C
> or Ada, the processor board is provided with a board support package (BSP)
> that handles extremely low hardware access (driving GPIO,
> enabling/disabling memory management, other stuff), and libraries/drivers
> are written to provide an interface between the OS and the BSP. The BSP
> tends to come from the board manufacturer, the OS from somewhere else
> (Windriver, for example, or home-grown). By writing a new driver layer it
> is possible to rebuild the OS/applications on a new processor board without
> making changes to the high layers.
> 
> 	But those driver layers tend to only be useful in the environment (the
> application/OS) above them.

I have just read that Wikipedia link you sent. Wow! This is very high end stuff. I am not intending to control planes with my project.

My concept is actually very simple. Please, allow me to briefly explain:

I want to use a finite state machine (FSM) approach. There will be a supervisor module which will instantiate sub-modules which communicate with peripherals. Each sub-module will be a separate sub-FSM, reporting its state to the supervisor. Each sub-module will make use of a protocol library (e.g. MODBUS RTU) and a hardware driver library (e.g. UART over RS485/232) to communicate with devices.

That is it. No OS, no middleware.

I realise my approach probably goes against the grain of many classically trained computer scientists using Ada for highly critical systems. I'm largely self-taught and want to develop something quickly and simply for a very specific niche market a couple of levels above the tinkerer.