288: You Got a Screen!
Embedded10 Touko 2019

288: You Got a Screen!

Christopher (@stoneymonster) and Elecia (@logicalelegance) discuss embedded systems education and project documentation.

Elecia wrote about her love of notebooks on the https://www.embedded.fm/blog-index.

yEd, for when you don't have Visio. Asciiflow.com, for when you don't have yEd (or you want to put diagrams in your comments)

We talked about many different documents and tried to note design vs implementation, product vs engineering vs user, and why we wanted them. We didn't mention mechanical things because, ya know, software engineers. Some documentation we mentioned:

  • Product documentation

  • Schematics with block diagrams and comments. Also a GPIO to function spreadsheet.

  • UI flow when the system has a screens (Balsamiq for wireframe testing UIs)

  • SW spec and design doc: what do we plan to build and what are the tricky parts

  • SW configuration and SW developer docs: how to rebuild the computer that can build the code from scratch, also notes on debugging methodology

  • User manual: Usually not written by SW but may need SW's patient input

  • Code comments: Functions and files get 5Ws: who, what, why, when, where, and how.

    • Who should call this?

    • What will its effect be? ("What will it do" but not in line by line detail!)

    • How does it work?

    • Why does it work this way?

    • When should it be called?

    • Where are its parameters? ("What" works here too but "where" is nice to remind you to check your memory assumptions.)

  • Repository checkin comments

  • Style guide (Such as Google's or PEP)

  • Manufacturing docs and tests docs

Adafruit and Sparkfun both write good documentation, writing to users about how to use their code. Elecia likes Adafruit's sensor library as a good set of code to review (including how much is in their docs vs their code).

Jaksot(567)

520: All Sorts of Interesting Facts About Teeth

520: All Sorts of Interesting Facts About Teeth

Chris and Elecia apologize, discuss uses and abuses of chatbots, reach out to an uncertain manager, try to help someone out of their professor's draconian rules, and extol the joys of reading.  Chabot...

6 Helmi 58min

519: The Password Is All Zeros

519: The Password Is All Zeros

Mark Omo and James Rowley spoke with us about safecracking, security, and the ethics of doing a bad job. Mark and James gave an excellent talk on the development of their safecracking tools at DEF CON...

23 Tammi 1h 6min

518: Nothing We Can Do About Frogs

518: Nothing We Can Do About Frogs

James Cameron spoke with us about programming for and operating a large telescope. The show is a blend of astronomy, engineering on the fly, and weird lady bug habitats.  The Anglo-Australian Telescop...

9 Tammi 1h 8min

517: A Direct, Sensible Podcast

517: A Direct, Sensible Podcast

Nathan Jones and Chris Svec give Chris and Elecia their 2025 performance review.  Donations went to Elevate Tutoring, an organization that provides funding and support to low-income and first-generati...

2 Tammi 1h 1min

516: Voices From the Cataclysms of the Universe

516: Voices From the Cataclysms of the Universe

Sophi Kravitz joined us to talk about art, science, and engineering.  You can see Messages from Space on Sophi's website /sophikravitz.com). A subset of the artwork had a short stay for a demo at Chab...

12 Joulu 202558min

515: Script Boomers

515: Script Boomers

Nick Kartsioukas joined us to talk about security in embedded systems.  Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) is the primary database to check your software libraries, tools, and OSs: cve.org. Op...

27 Marras 20251h 10min

514: Just Turn Off All the Computers

514: Just Turn Off All the Computers

Philip Koopman joined us to talk about embedded systems becoming embodied and intelligent. We focus on the safety considerations of making an intelligent and embodied device.  Phil's new book is Embo...

14 Marras 20251h 10min

513: I'm Sorry You Learned Something

513: I'm Sorry You Learned Something

Jason Turner of C++ Weekly and Empty Crate spoke with us about the joy of puzzles, the changing directions of an interesting career, and the C++ programming language. I mean, of course we talked about...

30 Loka 20251h 17min

Suosittua kategoriassa Tiede

rss-mita-tulisi-tietaa
rss-poliisin-mieli
tiedekulma-podcast
rss-duodecim-lehti
docemilia
rss-lihavuudesta-podcast
utelias-mieli
radio-antro
rss-sosiopodi
sotataidon-ytimessa
mielipaivakirja
filocast-filosofian-perusteet
rss-laakaripodi
rss-radplus
rss-opeklubi
rss-luontopodi-samuel-glassar-tutkii-luonnon-ihmeita