hn-classics/_stories/2006/12870899.md

created_at	title	url	author	points	story_text	comment_text	num_comments	story_id	story_title	story_url	parent_id	created_at_i	_tags	objectID	year
2016-11-04T07:29:03.000Z	Rules for Writing Safety Critical Code (2006)	http://spinroot.com/p10/	mpweiher	166			81					1478244543	story author_mpweiher story_12870899	12870899	2006

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The Power of Ten -- Rules for Writing Safety Critical Code

`The Power of Ten

10 Rules for Writing Safety Critical Code`

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| ----- | | 1 | | Restrict to simple control flow constructs. | (details) |
| 2 | | Give all loops a fixed upper-bound. | (details) |
| 3 | | Do not use dynamic memory allocation after initialization. | (details) |
| 4 | | Limit functions to no more than 60 lines of text. | (details) |
| 5 | | Use minimally two assertions per function on average. | (details) |
| 6 | | Declare data objects at the smallest possible level of scope. | (details) |
| 7 | | Check the return value of non-void functions, and check the validity of function parameters. | (details) |
| 8 | | Limit the use of the preprocessor to file inclusion and simple macros. | (details) |
| 9 | | Limit the use of pointers. Use no more than two levels of dereferencing per expression. | (details) |
| 10 | | Compile with all warnings enabled, and use one or more source code analyzers. | (details) |

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Based on: ''The Power of Ten -- Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code,'' IEEE Computer, June 2006, pp. 93-95 (PDF).

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