Hands-On Embedded Programming with C++17

Think before you optimize

The trick to optimizing code is that you should never attempt to do this without having a full understanding of what the change you're proposing will affect. Just having a feeling or a vague idea of how it might be a good idea isn't good enough.

While SoC-based platforms with a full OS tend to give you a bit more leeway, for MCU platforms, it's essential that you understand what the addition of a single keyword or use of a different data structure to store some information will mean.

The worst thing to do here is to assume that optimizations that you've used on SBCs and desktop systems will have a similar effect on an MCU platform. Due to the modified Harvard architecture and various quirks of platforms such as AVR, ...