Most popular software for electronic engineers

[QuintanaO]

Hi All

I’m electronic engineer and I am searching a program language to do application programs faster and powerful for control. I did use the Visual C++ in windows but is to complicated.

Could you recommend a software for try?

 

[ScottyUK]

Assembler code is pretty much the fastest you'll get, but is labour intensive for bigger applications. C is an excellent language for control purposes : what do you mean 'it is too complicated'? Start with simple applications and build toward bigger ones as you learn the language - there are some excellent books, or take a college course. If that's also too complicated, there's always McDonalds.


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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[itsmoked]

Look at Forth.
But straight "C" is pretty hard to beat. C++ I find onerous too.

 

[buzzp]

If you cant do C++ then assembly will probably be harder for you. If your control circuits operate fast (presumably so) then assembly might be the way to go as it is almost always less code than C or C++ with faster program execution. Some C compilers are pretty good with compiling but some stink.
If you have no programming experience, then start with the old BASIC language so you get a feel for how programming is done. This is the easiest language (other than ladder logic - if you want to call it that) and will help prepare you for using C or C++. Or just jump in and starting writing some simple programs with the compiler you have as suggested by ScottyUK.

 

[Noway2]

The first question that came to mind when I read your post is what system are you using for the controller?

If you want to use a PC, then Visual C or Visual Basic very well could be the way to do as they both should have the necessary drivers to utilize the peripherals on the hardware. Linux, if you are familiar with it, could be an even better choice because it allows you a lot more functionality with regards to embedding your own systm code and drivers into the OS Kernel.

If you are talking about an embedded processor application, the question of which language to use depends on the tools available which is platform specific. Almost always, the development tools consist of some form of cross compiler which can be a C, C++, assembly, or other. It is called a cross compiler because it runs on a PC but is compiling code that is meant to be executed on a different platform.

The impression that I have developed is that most or at least many embedded applications are written in C with some assembly where required. It appears that with the creation of embedded C++ which removes some of the functions that require a lot of processing overhead that C++ is starting to gain some ground.

 

[nbucska]

For beginner and for simple fast program -- less than
300 statements -- you can't beat GWbasic. It can be
debugged in interpreter mode and compiled by TURBO-
QUICK-, POWER- Etc.-BASIC for speed. For longer
programs the T-/Q-/P/...basics partially mitigate
the disadvantages of the GWbasic but C is better

C is easier to maintain,FORTH is the hardest, BASIC
is so-so...

The 300 statements are a lot -- I can send you a
few samples to illustrate the comlexity of tasks
what you can do with it. I used it for grafics,
robot control, calculation, text processing.

 

[Skogsgurra]

I have never used anything but assembler and FORTH (Yes smoked! You got it!) and I have done so for a little more than 30 years. My last project is entirely FORTH and my next will probably be that, too.

Someone said that FORTH is hard to maintain. Yes, perhaps - if you don't select "selfexplaining" variable names and prcedures. But with normal forethought and planning, I find FORTH one of the simplest languages you can use for embedded control. And code efficient, too.

If you do not want to write code at all, there are systems with graphic input available. But I usually do not recommend them.

Gunnar Englund

http://www.gke.org

 

[ScottyUK]

Aside:

Discovered yesterday that the Sun OpenBoot environment (the ok> prompt) uses a modified version of Forth. All these years and I never knew that - I found out while changing the HostID of the workstation. The OpenBoot environment is somewhere I rarely have need to venture except when things are going terribly wrong!


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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...