Tutorial 8 - breaking up a sketch into smaller files

A keybrd sketch can become quite lengthy, which can make it harder to navigate and understand.

The keybrd_DH sketch has about 800 lines of code; 700 of which are for instantiating objects. The object instantiations are grouped into four files located in the keybrd_DH library, and included in keybrd_DH.ino:

// ========= OBJECT INSTANTIATIONS =============
#include <instantiations_ports.h>
#include <instantiations_LEDs.h>
#include <instantiations_codes.h>
#include <instantiations_matrix.h>

Splitting your code into groups of instantiations also provides organizational and reusability benefits.

Example 1. You have three versions of LED indicators you are experimenting with:

instantiations_LEDs_1.h
instantiations_LEDs_2.h
instantiations_LEDs_3.h

Example 2. You use Colemak and want QWERTY users to to try your new keyboard design. So you publish your keybrd extension library with two versions of instantiations_matrix.h:

instantiations_matrix_colemak.h
instantiations_matrix_QWERTY.h

Example 3. You want to try someone else’s keybrd sketch, but your controller and matrix are different. So you replace two of your object instantiation files with your own:

instantiations_ports.h
instantiations_matrix.h

keybrd tutorial by Wolfram Volpi is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://github.com/wolfv6/keybrd/issues/new.