Major update to high integrity C++ coding standard

The longevity and ongoing popularity of HIC++ is evidenced by Chris Rommel, Vice President, M2M Embedded Technology at VDC, who commented: “The growing importance of coding standards has been one of the most significant trends impacting the test tool space over the past several years. And HIC++ is one of the most widely adopted."

“We are very proud of the fact that the development community has embraced HIC++ and recognize this as a source of coding best practices for C++ applications. It is humbling to know that this coding standard has been so widely adopted, with more than 24,000 copies having been downloaded over the past decade,” comments PRQA’s CTO, Fergus Bolger.

The new HIC++ Version 4.0 consolidates or retires a number of original rules and adds many more related to C++11 features, demonstrating its ongoing relevance to modern C++ coding best practice. Key enhancements include:

• Overall consolidation of rules to a more manageable size – down from 202 to 155, which are categorised using relevant clauses and sub-clauses from the text of the language standard (ISO C++ 2011) for easy navigation and cross reference,
• 61 new rules added, mostly related to C++11 updates, (lambdas, rvalue references, concurrency enhancements), but also covering other best practices,
• 80 rules have been retired and 44 have been merged down to 16,
• All rules receive improved explanations including compliant and non-compliant code examples.

The new HIC++ coding standard is now available at www.codingstandard.com, in addition to a whitepaper by the authors, summarizing the rationale behind V4.0, the changes from the previous version and how HIC++ fits with other key C++ coding standards.