Programming Embedded Systems, 2nd Edition

Personal Comments and Acknowledgments

From Michael Barr

For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in writing a book or two. But now that I have written several, I must confess that I was naive when I started. I had no idea how much work it would take, or how many other people would have to get involved in the process. Another thing that surprised me was how easy it was to find a willing publisher. I had expected that to be the hard part.

I continue to be thankful to all of the following people for sharing their ideas and reviewing my work on the first edition: Toby Bennett, Paul Cabler (and the other great folks at Arcom), Mike Corish, Kevin D’Souza, Don Davis, Steve Edwards, Mike Ficco, Barbara Flanagan, Jack Ganssle, Stephen Harpster, Jonathan Harris, Jim Jensen, Mark Kohler, Andy Kollegger, Jeff Mallory, Ian Miller, Henry Neugauss, Chris Schanck, Brian Silverman, John Snyder, Jason Steinhorn, Ian Taylor, Lindsey Vereen, Jeff Whipple, and Greg Young.

I would also like to thank our editor, Andy Oram. Without his enthusiasm for my initial proposal, overabundant patience, and constant encouragement, neither the first nor the second edition of this book would have been completed.

And, of course, I am extremely thankful to Anthony Massa. Anthony’s interest in updating this book with additional materials, new hardware and examples, and a change to the GNU tools came at just the right time. It has been difficult to watch someone else update a first edition that I felt good about and that sold so surprisingly well. But the new book is significantly better for Anthony’s tireless efforts. This second edition would not exist if not for Anthony’s hard work and dedication to the project.

From Anthony Massa

This is my second adventure in the realm of book writing. I thought writing a second edition would be a lot less work because most of the material was already finished. Boy, was I wrong. The second edition was as bit of a struggle and took more effort and time than I expected, but I think the book turned out better as a result.

I am very thankful to our editor, Andy Oram. His feedback was fantastic, he was a guiding light to push the book to completion, he always provided the needed spark to pull things together, and he even stepped in to test the code when needed. The second edition of this book is much better because of him and would not have been possible without his support and determination.

I would like to thank Michael Barr for the opportunity to work with him on this project. I know how attached a writer can become to such a project; thank you for entrusting me with the new edition. Michael provided extremely helpful input and helped me guide the text in the right direction. There were some struggles getting things just right, but I think that working through them has improved the book. Michael is truly a great mind in the embedded software development community.

Thanks to the folks at Arcom that so graciously provided the very impressive and top-notch development system for this book. A big thank you to Glen Middleton, who was always there to make sure I got whatever I needed. And thanks to Arcom’s extremely helpful development team of Ian Campbell, Martyn Blackwell, and David Vrabel.

I am very fortunate that the following people gave their valuable time to help make this book better by sharing ideas and reviewing the second edition. This outstanding team was made up of Michael Boerner, John Catsoulis, Brian Jepson, Nigel Jones, Alfredo Knecht, Jon Masters, Tony Montiel, Andrea Pellegrini, Jack Quinlan, Galen Seitz, and David Simon. A special thanks to Jonathan Larmour for being there in the clutch when I had a question for you—you came through for me, again.

A special thanks to my A-1 review crew of Greg Babbitt, my brother Sean Hughes, Brian Kingston, Anthony Taranto, and Joseph Terzoli.

I would like to thank two great people for all their support throughout my life—Nonno and Nonna. They were always there for me with love and guidance.

Thanks to my brother, Laurie, and my sister, Catherine, for their support. I am grateful that both of you are in my life.

I would like to give a very special thank you to my Mom and Dad for giving me the foundation to succeed. You are very special people, are very supportive in everything I do in life, and are always there whenever I need anything. I feel blessed that I have you for my parents.

I am thankful to my daughters, Katie and Ashley, who are always there to cheer me up when I’m down or stressed out. You are precious, special girls, and I love you both with all my heart.

Finally, I would like to thank my wonderful wife, Deanna. I know this journey was tough at times, but you were always patient and supportive. I’m grateful that you are in my life. Thanks for being my best friend.