Guidelines for the use of the C++ language in critical systems: MISRA C++ 2008

Nuneaton: MIRA, 2008. — 220 p.“C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off.” — Bjarne Stroustrup
Few could have predicted the effect that MISRA C would have within embedded systems engineering. Since its launch in 1998, it has become the dominant coding standard used for the development of critical systems with the C programming language.
Given this success, the fact that C++ is now being used within critical systems (e.g. the Joint Strike Fighter, jet-engine controllers and medical systems), and that there is currently no universally accepted set of guidelines for its use in these systems, MISRA committed itself to the development of a similar set of guidelines for C++. To that end, the MISRA C++ Working Group was established towards the end of September 2005. Its objectives were to:
Produce, using techniques similar to those within MISRA C, a C++ subset suitable for use in critical systems;
Gather existing C++ guidelines from many diverse sources into a single repository;
Add new guidance so as to significantly enhance the state-of-the-art;
Establish a single, generic set of guidelines for the use of C++ in critical systems;
Produce guidelines that are understandable to the majority of programmers.
The work to produce the guidelines made a rapid start, and was greatly assisted by the many inhouse coding standards that were made available to the group — thanks are due to all those who contributed. These, and the guidelines available from other sources, formed a solid foundation on which to base many rules.
Focus then moved on to the production of guidelines for Templates, Inheritance and Exception Handling, with these areas being specifically targeted as the existing state-of-the-art did not provide adequate coverage. The issues associated with Unnecessary Constructs were also selected for investigation.
This document contains the results of these activities. The group hopes that MISRA C++ will go on to become as successful and widely-adopted as MISRA C.