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    If/when you support both TCP and Serial communications, do you want to support that from a single executable via configuration, or do you want that as separate executables? How comfortable would you be designing this in a language that supports OO like C++? Commented May 15, 2020 at 12:05
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    Not related, but "recieve_data" should be spelt "receive_data" Commented May 15, 2020 at 12:24
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    You might want to look at C plugin systems - what you're doing seems very similar or could be implemented this way. The Linux VFS layer is another example, with the filesystems being "plugged in" to the system with a "simple" interface. (I'm not saying filesystem code is simple. The registration interface is straightforward though.) Commented May 15, 2020 at 12:56
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    Function pointers are awesome. I don't think you should worry about performance; a function pointer is going to have essentially the same overhead as calling a function directly. Commented May 15, 2020 at 15:06
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    But to answer your question directly, if you're looking for runtime polymorphism (i.e. the processing of a message changes depending on its type), function pointers seem like a good way to go. No elaborate plugin system required. You could even write a factory method that accepts a "message type" and returns a function pointer to the correct processor function. Commented May 15, 2020 at 15:12