Why do all my “foo…bar” strings eat up the SRAM?
By default, all strings are handled as all other initialized variables: they occupy RAM (even though the compiler might warn you when it detects write attempts to these RAM locations), and occupy the same amount of flash ROM so they can be initialized to the actual string by startup code. The compiler can optimize multiple identical strings into a single one, but obviously only for one compilation unit (i. e., a single C source file).
By default, all strings are handled as all other initialized variables: they occupy RAM (even though the compiler might warn you when it detects write attempts to these RAM locations), and occupy the same amount of flash ROM so they can be initialized to the actual string by startup code. The compiler can optimize multiple identical strings into a single one, but obviously only for one compilation unit (i. e., a single C source file). That way, any string literal will be a valid argument to any C function that expects a const char * argument. Of course, this is going to waste a lot of SRAM. In Program Space String Utilities, a method is described how such constant data can be moved out to flash ROM. However, a constant string located in flash ROM is no longer a valid argument to pass to a function that expects a const char *-type string, since the AVR processor needs the special instruction LPM to access these strings. Thus, separate functions are needed that take this into account. Ma
