Using C++ in an embedded environment

Question

Today I got into a very interesting conversation with a coworker, of which one subject got me thinking and googling this evening. Using C++ (as opposed to C) in an embedded

Answer 1

I don't know about "general consensus", only the company I work for (which does a lot of development for mobile phones, car navigation systems, DPFs, etc.).

The main drawback I've encountered to using C++ on embedded platforms as opposed to C is that it isn't quite as portable - there are many more cases of compilers that don't adhere to the standard which can cause problems if you need to build your code with more than 1 compiler or outright have bugs in the implementation. Then there are environments where C++ code simply won't run - BREW's issues with relocatable code and its "native OOP" don't play so well with "regular" C++ classes and inheritance.

In the end, though, if you're only targeting 1 platform, I'd say use whatever you think is "better" (faster, less bugs, better design) for your development - in most cases the issues can be worked around quite easily.