Re: Getting started with bare-board development

[Robert Eachus <rieachus@comcast.net>]

On Friday, November 11, 2016 at 5:19:35 PM UTC-5, Adam Jensen wrote:
> Hi, I've recently began to have a serious look at Ada-2012 and
> Spark-2014, and using GNAT for the development of real-time software in
> embedded systems. What is a good way to get started?
... 
> Also, do ARM processors make sense for safety critical systems? If not,
> would it make more sense to target a different platform from the beginning?

Just a couple of reminders that you may want to put on your screen saver, or a plaque above your desk:

Make it run, then make it right, then make it fast [Kent Beck]

Premature optimization is the root of all evil [Donald Knuth]

Moving from hardware to software, or mixing them together, it is sometimes hard to remember this key to software development. With Ada you are best off pulling any interface or (software) algorithm into a package.  Sometimes a package you create this way will be implemented by interfacing to a library package, from the Ada RM, the device manufacturer, or a code repository.  Let the compiler do the hard work of eliminating unused code, call throughs, and inlining a short procedures and functions. You will be amazed at the small ratio between lines of source code (SLOC) and the size in bytes of the resulting hardware module.  (Don't forget to strip out the debugging support, enumeration literals, etc., before measuring. ;-)