On tuesday this week at the ESC UK conference Saks will look at reducing runtime overhead in C++ programs and describe how to reduce the cost of passing arguments to function calls; how to recognize and avoid both implicit conversions and compiler-generated temporary objects; and how to streamline object creation and initialization.

Saks says embedded programmers tend to be more concerned with speed and space penalties associated with language features and programming techniques. They may reject certain features because they believe that those features are too costly. In fact, C++ offers many ways to fine-tune performance to bring the costs down to acceptable levels. His class examines the cost of various C++ language features and presents programming techniques that help reduce those costs.

Saks will follow this with an advanced session on Handling Interrupts in C++. He will explore how to implement an interrupt service routine (ISR) framework in C++; how to evaluate trade-offs between performance and flexibility, particularly regarding choices between static and dynamic binding. The class covers the various approaches to interrupt handler design, including the use of virtual functions and templates.

For more details see the ESC UK website.