Also known as BARR-C:2018, the latest version of the company’s stylistic coding rules looks to help embedded system designers reduce defects in firmware written in C and C++.
First published over 10 years ago the Standard has been used by embedded software developers to help reduce the time they spend at the debugging stage of their projects as well as improve the maintainability and portability of their source code.
For the 2018 edition, Barr Group has eliminated the few prior conflicts between its rules and those in the MISRA C:2012 - Guidelines for the Use of the C Language in Critical Systems.
Many firmware developers have chosen to combine bug-killing stylistic rules from the BARR-C standard with safety guidelines from MISRA C.
According to recent industry surveys, BARR-C and MISRA C are the two most widely-followed coding standards, with four out of ten professional embedded system designers applying one or both on their current project.
“The Embedded C Coding Standard’s emphasis on defect-killing stylistic rules has always complemented MISRA C’s style-less focus on a safer language subset,” says Barr Group CTO Michael Barr. “To ensure that developers are able to seamlessly combine rules from these important standards, we have updated our standard and verified that all of our rules are in harmony with the most recent version of MISRA C.”
Commenting Andrew Banks, who is Chairman of the MISRA C Working Group said, “We are pleased that embedded systems engineers are increasingly adopting defect-reducing coding standards such as MISRA C and the Embedded C Coding Standard. Now that the guidelines from MISRA can be more easily coupled with the stylistic rules from BARR-C, we look forward to seeing embedded software designers take even greater steps towards improving the safety, security, and overall code-quality of their products.”