A visual programming support system (VPSS) for embedded software development

There is a pressing need to develop high-performance programming environments specifically targeted to developing embedded control software. Embedded control software differs from general-purpose software in many respects. Once implemented, embedded software is usually never changed, and thus, it must be fault tolerant and robust. Embedded control software is often required to undertake multiple tasks in real time with very little or no operating system overhead. Moreover, embedded software differs from general-purpose code in style and content since embedded controllers interact with hardware signals rather than a user through text or other means. The high demands on software robustness coupled with the difficulties in debugging and documenting real-time multitasking software warrant the development of intelligent programming support environments. We present the framework of VPSS being developed at the industrial Research Laboratory at the University of Florida. The environment has automated code generation capabilities to improve programmer efficiency while maintaining limits on code size. The interactive programming environment relies on dialogs to pick code segments to reduce syntax errors. Perhaps the most novel aspect of the environment is its extensive use of data bases during design, development, debugging, and automatic documentation phases. A query language is built in to assist variable and event tracing during debugging.