Need for Coding Guidelines

This blog is intended to give information on the various coding guidelines used in the automotive industry. The coding guidelines for high-level languages, especially C along with auto code generation using SIMULINK and STATEFLOW will be the focus of attention.

C is widely used in the automotive industry due to its flexibility and universal acceptance facilitating greater support. But C has grown so flexible that that it has become virtually impossible to address all areas of concern. The high level of integrity and reliability required for safety- critical applications such as in automotive systems will not be present in the final executable code derived from C unless the flexibility is restricted. Here comes the significance of coding guidelines.

So coding guidelines identify certain aspects of C that have to be avoided to prevent the application from crashing. The industry has to follow a single set of guidelines for obvious reasons and has been widely using the MISRA guidelines.