EC-a measurement based safer subset of ISO C suitable for embedded system development

With the explosive growth of embedded systems, there is a major need for a standardised code of practice in the use of C. Although this area has been explored before, progress has been ad hoc and most importantly, carried out in the general absence of any measurement support. This paper attempts to define a relatively small number of rules which avoid known fault modes in the language which have published occurrence rates. It will studiously avoid any rules for which no measurement support is available. It is anticipated that the base subset may be extended as time goes by as further data becomes available. Much of the subset is equally relevant to ISO C++, although very little data exists to guide similar initiatives for the considerable part of C++, which lies outside C.