Top 5 Programming Languages for Electrical Engineers and Hardware Engineers 

One of my favorites is C, well mostly C++ since that's what I use at work and what my industry uses mostly. :) Would like to learn the first ones you mentioned V something and the systemV something. Lol.

I wondering to start learning Matlab It's important for power electronic stuff

Hi :) So you are italian? I was just wondering...

@@enricoturato Hi! I am from RF, from Moscow. Anyway, most of my friends are Italian and I love Italy ! :)

@@GeorgeWulfers_88 Cool! Which industry do you mean? :) Verilog and System Verilog

Thank you! Happy to hear ☺️😉

Thank you for your comment :) I am not a huge fan of Matlab as well. However, It is awesome/irreplaceable for some of the applications, for instance modelling

@@AnastasiInTech not a huge fan either, but it can be great for bringing the gap between scientists and engineers. I've used it to convert maths from someone's Ph.D thesis into an FPGA implementation. AFAIK that's the only toolchain that makes this possible within a single environment. The C code generator isn't too bad either.

Hardware "modeling". Thinking it's programming is what's driving many to verilog thinking it's C for hardware

Excellent! I know that MATLAB has a great toolset for RF design 😁

What are the courses they taught in master in electrical engineering first year

if can do it with Python is aimless using Julia.

@@luciangv3252 You are right. If I can do it with assembler it's aimless using C++.

​@@luciangv3252If you do not mind your program running 60 to 100 times slower that is indeed true.

😊 thank you

Thank you :)

@@AnastasiInTech You're welcome! :)

Except she doesn't because her favorite language is python which is definitely not used on microcontrollers

Thanks for sharing!

that's like all the languages in the list lol! i didn't like my first interaction with python but seems like there is no way around it hmph

it's matlab: matrix laboratory not math

Thank you :)

Is yiur matlab training under electrical engineering or just matlab in general?

As soon as you learn it, hate will be gone :) Wow start up for a new electronic device sounds cool! Which application it will be? Mb biomedical ? :)

@@AnastasiInTech I had to learn programming to get through my electrical engineering degrees. So I have a good basic knowledge. However, I don't like it at all and all of them were difficult for me to pass: Higher programming languages: C/C++/Java object oriented Hardware languages: Assembler/FUB(PLC)/AWL(PLC)/VHDL I'm not giving too much away. Is a new kind of lamp with LED and fast microcontroller (as an expensive designer lamp). Only 2 very small companies in the USA and 1 company in Germany offer such lamps. So it would still be a chance because pretty no offer at the moment. I first try to make something in the premium sector with high quality and high prices... But there are high risks that it will not be a long-term venture. Firstly, the power of the big companies in the lamp sector. And the chinese competition that can destroy you... I also have to check if I don't violate any patents with the prototype or licences when using hardware programming libraries or something... Running a business in a legally correct way is not that easy either...

@@daisyduck8593 Cool! It seems like you have a lot of work to be done in the near future! Wish you patience and best luck :)

Yo fayn

Wach 3mlti génie électrique

Quit simping. That makes the male gender look bad. Maintain your dignity.

This is a Russian girl. Don't envy!

@@thevirginmarty9738 Simp.

@@user-ig1wb1ms3y No envy at all, just acknowledging she has superior intelligence and supreme beauty. Some of us real men aren't afraid to recognize that and express a genuine compliment. Not everyone has been inflicted by Woke mental illness.

@@thevirginmarty9738 what's your problem

It depends on your goals. From hardware point of view, C and Python are fundamental. If you ask in general, then it’s better to focus on one language and to master algorithms

@@AnastasiInTech Thanks so much for your reply! Really glad to see content for hardware engineering (& good content hehe :))

@@AnastasiInTech which software should I start to familiarize with as an electrical engineer

@@philipogbodu3520 Depends on what you mean by electrical engineer because there are a wide variety of specialties and for most of them you will never be required to write any code. If you want to write firmware then you will either be programming FPGAs (then you should learn Verilog or VHDL) or microcontrollers (then you should learn C/C++)(and if you really want to master them learn assembly). There are many companies where the hardware engineer does not write firmware (they have dedicated firmware engineers) but you will work with them so you need to understand how the hardware in the device works so that you can help them fully utilize what they have available. Most firmware engineers don't have good understanding of hardware. There are also companies where you will do the hardware and firmware. As for all the other programming that you might do (data analysis, parsing, file manipulation) you can use any language for that so use whatever you learned and know well. If you know how to program (understand algorithms and concepts like flow control and memory management) then you can quickly learn the syntax for any language. If you're in college then you will learn whatever they select for the curriculum, probably python or C. If you are younger then learn whatever language you have access to and can use for projects. I first learned how to program by writing code for my TI-83 calculator which uses a form of Basic.

@@christopherjoseph651 we love to be asking you some question but don't know which medium i we used in connecting with you

:) Exactly

What you just described is NOT a hardware engineer, it is a software tester. I could easily write your dump parsing code in C or any other language. Please tell me of any time when you used python to program actual hardware

@@christopherjoseph651 Lol No! I did not mean that I use python to program harrdware. I use python or any kind of scripting languages to avoid those manual tasks like monitor simulations, or gather data from dumped files, or just simply hacking the SPICE netlist, etc

@@namtruong3414 Exactly, but this video is specifically for hardware engineering and there is no need to know python for that. You can use any language for the tasks you mentioned and the important thing is that someone who wants to become a hardware engineer should know how to program to do those tasks and the language doesn't matter. Python should not be #1 for hardware engineers but she put it at #1 because it is popular right now.

Thank you for supporting the fact that python is NOT for engineers

How do you know it can be useful in your industry

Brother like to know all this software but dont know how you can put me thru

Thank you ☺️☺️☺️

Thank you 😊 It is recommended to start with VeriLog and then extend to the features of SV.

@@AnastasiInTech Thank you!

If you want to waste your time then learn python. If you really want to be good at hardware then learn assembly. Learning assembly forces you to learn how the hardware works and teaches you how certain aspects of programming can cause huge performance issues.

That’s great 👏 Thank you

What is python all about

Hi Jane ! :) Yes, actually we widely use it ! I learned Python at work by myself. What about you? :) MATLAB I learned in school, but it is not my favourite ... :)

Python is a fairly recent arrival in the industry. I see a lot of fresh graduates who really learned that skill playing with Raspberry Pi's and then expand their use of the language. You know the saying : when all you have is a hammer, all your problems look like nails. Myself, I've only started learning Python recently as it turns out it's the best language for deep learning. And it's really simple to learn compared to C.

Hardware engineers DON'T use python, at least no good hardware engineer would use it. These people that say they use it probably just use it for side tasks, not for programming actual hardware. I would love to see some idiot use a virtual language to program a microcontroller! That would be slower than dial up!

@@AnastasiInTech Can you please explain the use cases for python at your work? Please tell me you are not using python to program actual hardware

@@TheNefastor Python is the WORST language for deep learning! What you mean to say is that you don't know how to write your own AI code so it's easy for you to use the python libraries that have become popular. You do realize python is virtual language, translation it's extremely slow! If you used python for a machine learning algorithm the training would take forever, and there is NO WAY anyone would ever use python on an edge device. Do you think PyTorch or Tensor Flow are written in python, NO, the core is most likely written in ASSEMBLY because they need to be optimized for speed and efficiency.

To answer that, I need more details😁 Which exactly circuits you would like to design? What exactly you would like to program? I didn’t get the last question ..

Except it's basic type model simply doesn't match modern processors.

She is comparing Python with C and calling it a successor to C at 10:05. So what do you expect? It's obvious, that she doesn't know a lot about software engineering from a software development point of view. For those who are now wondering what the problem is? These two languages have completely different uses. You don't write an operating system with Python, it's not a programming language for system programming, C is.

Hi, I would go for Python :)

Neither, learn assembly. It depends on what you want to do. Do you want to write a bunch of test scripts for the actual hardware engineers to use, then learn python. If you want to actually program real hardware then learn C (you can basically write C if you know C++). If you want to work on the most advanced/highest performance systems then learn assembly. Every high end programmer will write the critical portions of their code using in-line assembly.

@@christopherjoseph651 Define high end programmer. I can program in x86 assembly, but I doubt that everyone is using it in performance-critical code these days. And there are several reasons for this: 1. The field where such optimizations in assembly are actually paid for is very small. 2. x86 CPUs in particular are very complex these days; you have to take a lot into account if you want to manually achieve faster code in x86 assembly than a highly optimized compiler produces. The effort can be disproportionate to the result. 3. You lose platform independence. That's why it makes sense to alternatively have a code branch for the same task that was written in a high-level language. And then at the latest you will realize whether your extra effort was even justified. There are special cases where x86 assembly still makes sense, no question, but the area is very small. So no, I would disagree with you on this statement that *every* high end programmer will write the critical portions of their code using in-line assembly. Of course, things can look different for other architectures, especially microcontrollers, but I wouldn't call them high-end programmers. For me, these are more like normal forest and meadow programmers who, due to the limited hardware resources available on microcontrollers, then write the code in assembly language, which makes the code a little bit faster and smaller.

Ok, I will consider it :)

You can of course use GNU Octave for the same task, but the question is what your employer expects of you. There is a possibility that he will provide you with Matlab, but not GNU Octave. Knowing both is probably the best option.

I hope you're serious about what you wrote as most students now seem to only be interested in obtaining the degree and not actually learning anything. If you want to be a good engineer you need to really learn about the devices that are used. This means learning and understanding how real devices work, not just ideal models, and how their non-ideal characteristics affect the overall design. Unfortunately you probably won't learn too much about this in school. Most schools focus on ideal only because it is easier and a good starting place. If you just want to make something that works this level of understanding is fine and you will know enough to copy application note schematics. If you actually want to do engineering you need to analyze your design and guarantee it will meet all specifications under all operating conditions. This requires an understanding of how real components will perform considering all parameter variations, temperature/environmental effects, power variations, etc. I teach a graduate level advanced op-amp design class. I make my students do exactly what I do at my job. If you look at a datasheet for an op-amp there is a lot of information in there and all of the values in the tables and charts influence how the op-amp will perform and affect the real product. You also NEED TO BE GOOD AT MATH. I have so many students that can't even begin design problems because they can't do the basic math that is required to generate the ideal design equations. Many of them are doing everything correctly and then just stop because the equations become overwhelming. You should talk to your teachers and ask them if they would help you understand more advanced topics that are not covered in your classes, real world design topics like I mentioned above. If they are a good teacher they should be willing to teach you. Also find some kind of hobby where you can apply what you learn in school to design something that you like. If you are doing something in your free time for fun then you will be much more willing to research and learn on your own. If you don't think electrical engineering is fun and worth spending your free time doing then you shouldn't become an electrical engineer because you won't enjoy your job. As for classes, the best classes to take aren't typically offered in most colleges. #1 PCB design. Actual layout design, not just how to use some software. This is very important with increasing speeds. At higher frequencies if the layout is not done correctly the circuit simply will not work. #2 EMI/EMC design. This is never taught even though almost every product you design will need to be certified. You will probably fail the first time you take a product to get certified and you will have no idea how to fix it. Anyone who says this is black magic knows nothing about this subject. You can learn the math and theory to design circuits properly to handle EMI/EMC. #3 Power supply design, not power electronics teaching buck/boost ideal duty cycle calculations. Actually designing and testing power supply circuits. 99% of all electrical products need some kind of power supply.

+1

@@TeraChad0 If you are working on a project by yourself you can use any language you want as long as there is a compiler for it. If you are programming hardware then; for FPGAs it will most likely be as she said in the video VHDL or Verilog but if you are programming the soft processor that is emulated on the FPGA you can use other languages, for microcontrollers most have C compilers and also assembly. A lot of the microcontroller companies have graphical tools for setting up the hardware that you will be using and then the tool generates code for you to initialize the hardware. This is probably going to be in C but they have compilers for other popular languages. Interestingly, the tool for the STM32 micros generates the startup code in assembly and then calls (jumps) to the "main" function in C, so you can mix C and assembly if you want. If you really want to become a good hardware programmer then read the programming reference manual for the device you are using and learn how to interface to the hardware directly. Don't be afraid to learn assembly, it is the fastest/highest performing language (as long as you write good assembly). Auto generated code and HALs (hardware abstraction layers) are serious performance killers. You have to remember that microcontrollers and FPGAs aren't like your typical PC CPUs, you still have to squeeze performance out of them.

Agree here ... :) Ahaha. How is your progress with German? How is life ? :)

@@AnastasiInTech it's good to know that, u started recognising your audience 👍

There really is no language that is required. If you are working on a group project then someone will select that software and it will depend on the company you work at and what the people you work with like to use. If you are working on a project by yourself you can use any language you want as long as there is a compiler for it. If you are programming hardware then; for FPGAs it will most likely be as she said in the video VHDL or Verilog but if you are programming the soft processor that is emulated on the FPGA you can use other languages, for microcontrollers most have C compilers and also assembly. A lot of the microcontroller companies have graphical tools for setting up the hardware that you will be using and then the tool generates code for you to initialize the hardware. This is probably going to be in C but they have compilers for other popular languages. Interestingly, the tool for the STM32 micros generates the startup code in assembly and then calls (jumps) to the "main" function in C, so you can mix C and assembly if you want. If you really want to become a good hardware programmer then read the programming reference manual for the device you are using and learn how to interface to the hardware directly. Don't be afraid to learn assembly, it is the fastest/highest performing language (as long as you write good assembly). Auto generated code and HALs (hardware abstraction layers) are serious performance killers. You have to remember that microcontrollers and FPGAs aren't like your typical PC CPUs, you still have to squeeze performance out of them.

I've never heart of Rust being used in hardware or electronic engineering fields. Rust is mostly used for software applications... As far as I know It is gaining popularity but its usage is still relatively low

@@AnastasiInTech thanks for the answer

ahahah :) thank you

C is no longer a good match for today processors though while C++ can match the register sizes and primitives exactly.

@@crhu319 That could be true, haven't really thought about it for a long time. I try to avoid both C & C++ as much as possible and don't think I've had to use either for anything series in quite a few years thankfully. I imagine plain old C isn't used for much other than legacy embedded work much anymore.

@@Me__Myself__and__I All current generation microcontrollers (which are used in embedded systems) have C compilers. This is a horribly common misconception in programming, that if a language is old it must only be used for older (legacy) systems. In fact the oldest implemented language, machine code, is THE ONLY language that runs on EVERY CPU/microcontroller.

@@crhu319 Wow you really have no clue what you're talking about. First C and C++ use the same primitives, and THE DEFINITION of "int" is that it is dependent on the specific hardware that it is running on and also compiler dependent and therefore scales with register size.

@@christopherjoseph651 Machine code is not a language as it is different for every chip. Assembly is a language that attempts to abstract machine code. Sure, they all HAVE C compilers - but is that the ONLY compiler available for them? I haven't looked into microcontrollers recently but I expect that situation will change if it hasn't already. Regardless it doesn't change the fact that c & c++ are horrible languages.

For microcontrollers it is still C. You won't find a micro that doesn't have a free C compiler

I started with GW Basic!

the best for which application?

@@AnastasiInTech electrical engineering 🤔

yes!

@@AnastasiInTech is there any scope in future

start with Python & C

@@AnastasiInTech what about C++?! if i learn C++ then is it ok instead of python?!

You’re welcome 😊

Yes

Hopefully python will just be a fad for the reasons you mention. I'm guessing she may be more of an entry level since she mentioned that she recently transitioned to hardware, and therefore may write a lot of test scripts in python and not critical performance code which requires assembly.