A fairly informative book for a student endeavouring to enter embedded systems. Jack Ganssle runs a blog on embedded systems; this book feels a collection of articles he may have written, for the chapters are not ‘connected’ and move around different topics freely. This is not a bad thing, it was a good book.
My favourite chapter was the one about handling bounce. This is the sort of unique problem that makes embedded systems a fascinating software discipline; when you use a button or switch, the metal contacts will experience minute vibrations that will cause the circuit there to ‘bounce’ between connected and disconnected until it settles. He shows the variety of bounce ‘patterns’ in different switches, and discusses multiple techniques for handling bounce, explaining why some techniques fail.
I appreciated the extra recommended reading peppered throughout the book, especially the MISRA-C standard and Computer Approximations. Appendix A “Firmware Standard” serves well as a summary of the books lessons on code.