mutac

* thebennybox (3d and 2d rendering and game engine development tutorials)

* Periodic Videos (charming elemental chemistry)

* Kristen Dirksen (alternative living spaces)

* Practical Engineering (civil engineering)

* Kruggsmash (neat things to do in dwarf fortress, so you don't have to)

I took a compilers course from Prof. Porter, and at the time he invited undergraduates to write a simulator for his relay computer. I remember thinking, "why in the world would I want to do that? I want to work on the next big thing!" Fast forward to now, I've never worked on the Next Big Thing, and am instead slowly, though enjoyably, building Ben Eater's 8-bit SAP-1 when I have some free time. It sort of feels a bit like building a ship in a bottle. I just wish I had taken Professor Porter up on his offer and maybe scratched an itch when I had a little more energy and free time.

I honestly think that, at this point, it's often a matter of taste, rather than technical. What tool do you think will make you more productive and interested in the project?

I personally don't think there's anything wrong at all with using c++11 (or any version) on devices like this, so long as the compiler you need to use provides a stable implementation of it. The new language features of c++11, like constexpr and move semantics, and the static meta-programming contraptions that are readily at hand in the STL can all be very helpful to create manageable and fast embedded systems.

Though it usually isn't a free for all. These things are commonly avoided:

* Exceptions (in many cases this alters the call-return sequence, which can increase code size, and add overhead that may not be acceptable)

* Most of the STL (because either a feature requires exceptions to use safely--like containers, or perhaps because the feature doesn't fit into your code section, or just takes up too much of it to be worthwhile)

* RTTI (which can increase the size of a vtable)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12138374