Mbed OS is an open-source embedded operating system designed for IoT development with Arm processors. It’s a popular RTOS (real-time operating system) at DMC for its modular library structure, giving the ability to use the same API across any supported target. The 5.14 Mbed OS release includes some quality of life improvements for developers, along with some exciting new features.
Find out more about the improvements made in this release in this blog.
Folder Name Standardization
The greatest QoL improvement is the standardization of folder naming. There was a lot of effort put into organizing files into public headers, private headers, and implementation.
You might be thinking, “Oh, alright, whatever.” I’ll show you an example, and you can see the difference for yourself.
This is the drivers folder. It contains APIs for most peripherals you need to interact with.
Look how pretty! As developers, we should only need to look at the APIs in the headers listed under the drivers directory.
The internal directory holds header files that are included by the public header files, while the source directory holds all the implementation. If you need to look into the internal or source directory, something may have gone wrong!
MQTT Support
The biggest feature releases, in my opinion, is a supported implementation of MQTT. MQTT is a lightweight messaging protocol ideal for IoT for its small size and low power usage. Previously, external MQTT libraries needed to be used on top of Mbed OS.
With a new supported MQTT library, there will be no more integration hassle between exterior libraries and Mbed OS.
Conclusion
With minor releases every two weeks and major releases every few months, Mbed OS is constantly expanding and improving. The new optimized folder structure makes it easier than ever to get started, especially if you need IoT connectivity with MQTT.
If you aren’t using Mbed OS for your development, now is your chance to give it a go!
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