Leanpub book LAUNCH 🚀 Designing Deterministic Systems with Modern C++: Host-First Development on Linux by Mark E. Wilson
Designing Deterministic Systems with Modern C++ is about building software systems you can reason about.
Welcome to the Leanpub Launch video for Designing Deterministic Systems with Modern C++: Host-First Development on Linux by Mark E. Wilson!
Mark E. Wilson
About the Book
Designing Deterministic Systems with Modern C++ is about building software systems you can reason about. Rather than treating Linux as something to “port to” late in development, this book uses a standard Linux host as a first-class environment for designing, validating, and stress-testing deterministic behavior before hardware exists. Using modern C++ and disciplined system architecture, it focuses on bounded execution, explicit ownership, analyzable data flow, and long-term maintainability—problems that dominate real embedded systems but are rarely addressed directly.
Instead of treating the host machine as an afterthought, this book embraces it as the most powerful tool you have. You’ll learn how to build a pseudo-realtime development environment using techniques like CPU isolation, memory locking, scheduling policies, and high-resolution timers. These tools allow you to prototype and validate embedded-style systems long before hardware arrives.
Throughout the book, we build a complete working example:
The Weather Reporter Device — a small “IoT-style” embedded system that ingests multiple sensor inputs, processes them through deterministic pipelines, and outputs standardized weather reports in multiple formats (NMEA, JSON, and compact binary).
Along the way, you’ll learn modern, production-strength C++ techniques, including:
* Practical use of C++17 for embedded and host-based development
* Clean modular design without unnecessary inheritance
* External polymorphism and type erasure for flexible interfaces
* Deterministic message parsing, serialization, and buffer handling
* Strategies for writing testable and replaceable components
* Building real-time–style pipelines on non–real-time hardware
* Simulating sensors, processors, and timing behaviors on Linux
* Designing APIs that survive scaling, refactoring, and porting
This book emphasizes clarity over cleverness, determinism over abstraction, and testability over hacks. Every chapter is structured around real code, real constraints, and real engineering trade-offs.
Whether you're a professional firmware engineer, a modern C++ developer exploring embedded systems, or someone building small devices and simulators on Linux, this book will give you a concrete foundation and a clear path from idea to working system.
Note: This is an early-access edition containing the first chapters of the book. More chapters will be added regularly. Buyers receive all updates automatically.
About the Author
I’m a senior systems and embedded software engineer who builds deterministic, reliable systems in environments where correctness, timing, and long-term maintainability matter.
My work centers on modern C++ and Python for embedded Linux and distributed systems, often modernizing legacy codebases into explicit, testable architectures that engineers can reason about and trust.
I’ve led and contributed to software for precision navigation and timing systems, including core components such as GPS receiver APIs, data pipelines, and device-level interfaces. I’ve also introduced Python-based automation and test frameworks that improved production efficiency, repeatability, and quality.
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