C for Electronic Engineering with Applied Software Engineering

Author: Dr W.Buchanan, Napier University, Edinburgh. Downloads: Source code ZIP Source code EXE Details: ISBN: 0-13-32668-8 Publisher:Prentice Hall Table of Contents		Software development has grown over the years from simple BASIC programs written on small hobby computers to large software systems that control factories. These systems are now very complex entities requiring a great deal of management and technical expertise. Many applications that at one time were implemented using dedicated hardware are now implemented using software and programmable hardware.
		This shift in emphasis has meant that, as a percentage, an increasing amount of time is spent on software and less on hardware development. Electronics-related students have a great advantage in this field as they acquire skills in many applications and in both hardware and software. An understanding of hardware allows an engineer to communicate with external devices, to fine-tune programs for the systems they are running on, to speed-up data transfer, to interrogate memory locations, to quickly determine hardware and software bugs, etc. Their skills in other areas such as data communications, control systems, radar applications, instrumentation, satellite communications, etc., help them develop software for many complex applications. This book is primarily aimed at teaching the C programming language for undergraduates and postgraduates studying on electrical engineering, electronic engineering, computer engineering, applied computer science and applied information technology courses.

Over the years I have observed that electronics-related students require not only a knowledge of the theory of a subject but also its practical implementation in a real-life situation. They tend to moan when given a specification to design a database for a stock control system but will eagerly tackle programs which design transistor amplifiers, display schematics or model digital circuits. The examples used in the text relate to digital electronics, analogue electronics and electrical principles. These applications should make the learning of the language more interesting and help to re-enforce fundamental principles learnt in other subjects (and to learn new subjects which are not covered in undergraduate classes). It gives a grounding in problem solving where, from an initial specification, a program is written which matches the requirements.

There are many C books currently available, but this book presents some of the concepts which an electrical, electronic, computer or software engineer may meet when working in a technical environment. It includes the coverage of key techniques such as bit-masking, bit operations, hexadecimal and binary conversion, accessing memory locations, bit-mapped graphics, direct video access, usage of structures, design of technical software, etc. The book uses two practical examples to demonstrate the complete software engineering process. It shows how the requirements are developed, how a design is carried out, the implementation and the final testing. This is intended as an introduction to software engineering and should set good practices for future software development. Structure charts are used throughout the text as these are simple to understand and can be used to develop structured programs. In summary, software development is an extremely practical subject which basically involves three main skills: problem solving, methodical planning and fault finding. All of which define a good engineer.