Good hardware design code re-use strategies, reference book

I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
code.

I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
maintenance.

thanks

wallge

wallge wrote:
> I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
> a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
> VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
> that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
> document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
> and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
> code.
>
> I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
> (I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
> resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
> me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
> wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
> software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
> was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
> maintenance.
>
> thanks

Take a look at the "Reuse Methodology Manual" by Keating and Bricaud.

http://tinyurl.com/3atmd3

or

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw...Go.y=0&Go =Go

Regards,

John McCaskill
www.fastertechnology.com

John McCaskill

wallge wrote:
> I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
> a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
> VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
> that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
> document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
> and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
> code.

I organize source files as vhdl-mode projects.
It's free, see:
http://www.iis.ee.ethz.ch/~zimmi/emacs/vhdl-mode.html


-- Mike Treseler

Mike Treseler

In comp.arch.fpga wallge <> wrote:
>I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
>a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
>VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
>that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
>document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
>and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
>code.

>I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
>(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
>resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
>me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
>wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
>software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
>was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
>maintenance.

Use a good version control system.
(Test it before accepting it. Make sure all relevant systems can handle it)

Use one source code management system if possible.

Decide on benefit/cost on clearing up various sources.
(Could start with just describing what it does in general)

pbFJKD@ludd.invalid

John McCaskill posted on 23 Jan 2007 09:51:58 -0800:

"Take a look at the "Reuse Methodology Manual" by Keating and Bricaud."

I have read only a tiny proportion of this book. Which parts could
actually teach someone something useful, if the reader does not
already understand the importance of the points (e.g. I do not think
that I would count "Use Functions" and "Use Loops and Arrays" from
Chapter 5 as being in this category)?

Regards,
Colin Paul Gloster

Colin Paul Gloster

On Jan 24, 4:49 am, pbF...@ludd.invalid wrote:
> In comp.arch.fpga wallge <wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >I am the main hardware designer for the company I work for. I inherited
> >a lot of old, badly written, poorly documented
> >VHDL designs and vendor tool project files. Over the course of the time
> >that I have worked here, I have been trying to take care to go back and
> >document things and better organize them, to make them easier to use
> >and reuse, along with trying to write well-documented, reusable new
> >code.
> >I don't have any training as a software engineer or code "maintainer"
> >(I'm an EE). I was wondering if there was a good
> >resource out there (maybe a website or book on amazon) that would clue
> >me into some good code writing and maintenance strategies that I
> >wouldn't have learned in school. I know that there are a lot of
> >software engineering resources available, but it would be nice if there
> >was something more specific to hardware design (HDL Code) reuse and
> >maintenance.Use a good version control system.
> (Test it before accepting it. Make sure all relevant systems can handle it)
>
> Use one source code management system if possible.

Look at revision control tools with a "bug tracking" feature.

>
> Decide on benefit/cost on clearing up various sources.
> (Could start with just describing what it does in general)

Bill Mills