Safer C

by Les Hatton

Software failure in high-profile areas, such as aerospace, defence and medicine frequently makes the headlines because of the potentially disastrous consequences. The huge and recent growth in the use of software development has particularly serious implications for such safety-critical and high-integrity systems. Despite its popularity and the excellent tool support available, C is only suitable for use in these areas within firm constraints and guidelines. Safer C: Developing Software for High-integrity and Safety-critical Systems highlights the 'holes' in C, but also demonstrates clearly that, employed correctly, C can be used to write software of as high intrinsic quality as other languages. Beginning with a broad overview of safety in software, the book provides a critique of C as a safety-critical language, based on the author's extensive measurements of commercial C quality. Complexity, safer subsets, standards and tools are all examined. Essential rules of good working practice