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2020 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

Blech, Imperative Synchronous Programming!

Authors : Friedrich Gretz, Franz-Josef Grosch

Published in: Languages, Design Methods, and Tools for Electronic System Design

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

We discuss how separate compilation and usage of structured data can be achieved in a synchronous imperative programming language for embedded systems. Our focus is on the practical aspects of these questions regarding expressiveness in programs as well as causality analysis and code generation. The approach is illustrated by means of examples written in our new language Blech. In particular, we revisit the stopwatch example from the literature to discuss causality, separate compilation, and other aspects of software engineering in more depth. This is an extended version of a previously published article.

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Footnotes
1
Blech is German and colloquially translates to “bare metal” highlighting our focus on deeply embedded architectures.
 
2
For a quick overview see [16].
 
3
Here let should not be confused with the same keyword in functional languages where it binds a free variable in a subsequent subexpression.
 
4
By default enumerations are opened and hence their tags may be accessed without specifying the type name.
 
5
It is not a predefined keyword as in Java but an arbitrary identifier as in F#.
 
8
In Simulink, delays are used in the same fashion to resolve algebraic loops.
 
9
With the need for creating a software library for different platforms, it is obvious that support for interface-based programming is clearly a requirement for Blech.
 
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Metadata
Title
Blech, Imperative Synchronous Programming!
Authors
Friedrich Gretz
Franz-Josef Grosch
Copyright Year
2020
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31585-6_9