C/C++ Embedded Systems Learning Journey 🔧

Intermediate C++ developer focusing on C and embedded systems — learning bare-metal development with K&R, Jacob Sorber, and real hardware.

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👋 About This Repo

This is my personal learning repository documenting my journey through C and embedded systems development. I have an intermediate C++ background and am now focusing on mastering C and writing real firmware — understanding microcontrollers at the bare-metal level and building toward production-ready embedded projects.

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🗺️ Roadmap

Phase 1 — C Fundamentals (current)

• Variables, data types, operators
• Control flow (if, loops, switch)
• Printf format specifiers and float precision
• Character input, getchar(), EOF, and data type sizing
• If statements, character comparison, newline detection
• State machines, #define constants, word/line/character parsing
• Arrays, for loops, ASCII arithmetic, array initialization
• Functions, prototypes, return values, local scope
• Call by value, local copies, foundation for pointers
• Character arrays, strings, null terminator, get_line, copy
• External variables, global scope, extern keyword
• Pointers and memory
• Arrays and strings
• Pointers and memory
• Structs, enums, unions
• File I/O
• Bitwise operations

Phase 2 — C++ for Embedded

• Classes and objects
• RAII and resource management
• Templates (basics)
• What to avoid in embedded C++ (exceptions, dynamic allocation)

Phase 3 — Microcontroller Fundamentals

• GPIO
• Timers and interrupts
• UART / SPI / I2C communication
• ADC / DAC
• First project on STM32 Nucleo

Phase 4 — RTOS & Systems Concepts

• FreeRTOS basics (tasks, queues, semaphores)
• Memory-mapped I/O
• Linker scripts
• Bootloaders

Phase 5 — Real Projects

• Sensor data logger
• Motor controller
• Custom bootloader

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📁 Repo Structure

c-cpp-embedded-learning/
├── basics/          # C fundamentals — pointers, memory, bitwise
├── pointers/        # Deep dives into pointer mechanics
├── structs/         # Structs, enums, unions
├── files/           # File I/O
├── cpp/             # Embedded C++ examples
└── projects/        # Small complete programs

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🛠️ Tools & Setup

Tool	Purpose
VS Code	Editor
PlatformIO	Embedded dev environment
Clang (Xcode CLI Tools)	C/C++ compiler
GDB + OpenOCD	Debugging
STM32 Nucleo	Target hardware (Phase 3+)

macOS setup:

xcode-select --install   # installs clang

Compile and run a file:

clang filename.c -o filename && ./filename

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📚 Resources

Books

• The C Programming Language — Kernighan & Ritchie (K&R)

YouTube

• Jacob Sorber — Best free embedded C content
• Low Level Learning — C internals and systems thinking
• Phil's Lab — STM32 and DSP

Websites

• cppreference.com — C/C++ language reference
• Interrupt Blog — Advanced embedded topics
• FreeRTOS.org — RTOS documentation

Courses

• Intro to Embedded Systems — Coursera (CU Boulder) — Free to audit

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📈 Progress Log

Date	Milestone
2026-03-17	Repo created, Hello World running
2026-03-17	Temperature conversion table — K&R Chapter 1 (variables, while loop, printf format specifiers, integer division)
2026-03-17	Float temperature conversion — K&R Chapter 1 (float vs int, FPU awareness, printf width and precision specifiers)
2026-03-18	Character counter — K&R Chapter 1 (getchar, EOF, long vs int, byte-by-byte input reading)
2026-03-19	Line counter — K&R Chapter 1 (if statements, character comparison, char vs int, newline detection)
2026-03-19	Learned how Git commits and contributions work — committing files separately for granular history
2026-03-23	Word counter — K&R Chapter 1 (state machines, #define constants, multi-counter input parsing)
2026-03-29	Renamed repo to c-cpp-embedded-learning, added cpp/ folder, updated README to reflect C++ background
2026-03-29	Digit counter — K&R Chapter 1 (arrays, for loops, ASCII arithmetic, array initialization)
2026-03-30	Functions example — K&R Chapter 1 (function definitions, prototypes, return values, local scope)
2026-03-30	Call by value — K&R Chapter 1 (pass by value, local copies, foundation for pointers)
2026-04-02	Character arrays — K&R Chapter 1 (strings, null terminator, get_line, copy function)
2026-04-02	External variables — K&R Chapter 1 (global variables, scope, extern keyword)
2026-04-02	Completed K&R Chapter 1

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💬 Code Style Notes

Comment Style: /* */ vs //

Both are valid in modern C (C99 and later). This repo uses /* */ intentionally:

• Historical — // was not part of the original C standard (C89/C90). Older embedded codebases and hardware vendor code use /* */ exclusively.
• Portability — some embedded toolchains target C89/C90 for maximum compiler compatibility. Older or stripped down compilers may not support // at all.
• Convention — FreeRTOS, STM32 HAL, MISRA C compliant code, and most vendor libraries all use /* */ style. Getting used to it now makes reading real embedded codebases feel natural later.

For modern projects targeting C99 or C11, // is perfectly fine.

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• All code written and tested on macOS (Apple Silicon)
• Intermediate C++ background, focused on C and embedded fundamentals
• Goal: bare-metal embedded firmware development

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Learning in public. Mistakes will be made. That's the point.