Sunday, January 24, 2016

Book Review for "Mastering Embedded Linux Programming"









Book Review for "Mastering Embedded Linux Programming"

Are you interested in Embedded Programming?  Are you a Linux programmer interested in expanding your horizons?  If so, this book might be one you'd be interested in.

Packt Publishing categorizes books by depth, this one is in the 'Mastering' category.  That means the book does not teach to a beginning level, the author can assume the reader has the fundamentals developed already.  If you are new to Linux programming, this is probably not going to be an easy read for you.

The author leads the reader through selection of the necessary tools, then launches into the nitty-gritty low-level material an embedded coder will need.  Bootloaders, kernel details, working with a root file filesystem and device drivers are all discussed.  There are chapters on the Linux init/systemd mechanisms, processes and threads, and memory management.  Development issues are GDB, profiling and tracing are provided.  The final chapter is about real-time programming.

This is a big book, nearly 400 pages.  The material is clearly presented, the explanations are understandable.  The author clearly has deep expertise in the subject matter and is good about sharing the knowledge.

The verdict?  If you are interested in programming embedded devices for Linux, this book probably has a place in your library.




The book can be found here.

Happy coding!