The increasing software content in current and future embedded systems has forced academia and industry to devise new programming methodologies. Only with new methods, software productivity will keep the pace with user's demands in the very competitive embedded market. Software synthesis, a traditionally formal approach of code generation from abstract models, is an attractive concept to solve the programming problem. In this paper we describe some of the major trends in software synthesis and its place in the overall environment of Electronic System Level (ESL) design and verification. The trends are illustrated by using the Multi-Processor System on Chip Application Programming Studio (MAPS) as example.