"This book will almost certainly become a seminal work in this field...the one book everyone will want to have both as a tutorial and as a reference."
--Larry McAlister, Senior Systems Architect, ENSCO, Inc.

The global demand for real-time and embedded systems is growing rapidly. With this increased demand comes an urgent need for more programmers in this realm; yet making the transition to real-time systems development or learning to build these applications is by no means simple. Real-time system designs must be written to meet hard and unforgiving requirements. It is a pursuit that requires a unique set of skills. Clearly, real-time systems development is a formidable task, and developers face many unique challenges as they attempt to do "hard time."

Doing Hard Time is written to facilitate the daunting process of developing real-time systems. It presents an embedded systems programming methodology that has been proven successful in practice. The process outlined in this book allows application developers to apply practical techniques--garnered from the mainstream areas of object-oriented software development--to meet the demanding qualifications of real-time programming.

Bruce Douglass offers ideas that are up-to-date with the latest concepts and trends in programming. By using the industry standard Unified Modeling Language (UML), as well as the best practices from object technology, he guides you through the intricacies and specifics of real-time systems development. Important topics such as schedulability, behavioral patterns, and real-time frameworks are demystified, empowering you to become a more effective real-time programmer.