Embedded C Programming

Discussions center on the dominance and necessity of C in embedded systems programming, including its entrenchment due to vendor libraries, tools, and industry practices, alongside mentions of alternatives like Rust or MicroPython.

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Keywords

CS AR EE SoCs CPU HN Embedded.fm ARM BE MicroPython embedded embedded systems software systems programming arm ee code targets language

Sample Comments

reedx8 • Sep 26, 2018 • View on HN

Why didn't programming for embedded systems work for you?

jbay808 • Apr 29, 2021 • View on HN

Embedded systems programmers don't always have such luxury!

satvikpendem • Dec 8, 2022 • View on HN

Are there not a lot of embedded systems that only have a C compiler?

ycombinatrix • Jul 13, 2025 • View on HN

"Serious embedded devs" are probably using a compiled language.

Touche • Dec 26, 2019 • View on HN

C is basically your only option for embedded systems.

cpach • Sep 19, 2020 • View on HN

I guess in embedded, C is still strong?

SV_BubbleTime • Jun 16, 2022 • View on HN

I program for embedded… still do that.

luma • May 18, 2021 • View on HN

Not really, C is pretty deeply entrenched in the embedded world. Unless you want to bitbang something like a USB host, you’ll be relying on vender libraries, and those libraries are overwhelmingly developed in C. Same is true for pretty much the entire build chain, debug tools, etc.

adaszko • Nov 22, 2018 • View on HN

Does this matter anywhere outside of embedded software nowadays?

hackcasual • Jun 21, 2019 • View on HN

It's for an embedded (SoC) device, so likely they didn't want the overhead of a more managed language.