Embedded Project Organization and Management for Multi-Target Build and Selective Code Delivery

Multi-target development is commonly used in embedded programming where different hard-ware systems can be used to perform the same set of functionalities defined in the user source code. This is usually handled by lengthy Makefiles or similar, which can be a roadblock for many beginning programmers. Here, we provide a simple approach for multi-target development. Specifically, our approach is based on (1) the project organization in the file system, (2) project management in the toolchain, (3) using a hook function for minimum intrusion to the automatically generated code as well as callback functions for interrupt handling, and (4) leveraging compiler symbol definitions for automatic conditional compilation. Additionally, we use the weak and normal functions organized in two top-level folders to facilitate selective code delivery, which is badly needed in the education area where problem code can be delivered to students and the solutions can be delivered to teaching assistants without project and code duplication. An illustrative project programmed in both C and assembly is provided to illustrate the points we discussed in the paper.