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This document is the English edition of ESCR (Embedded System development Coding Reference) [C
language edition] Version 2.0 published by IPA/SEC* in Japan. It is the revised English edition of ESCR
Version 1.1 made available in 2010 in pdf format. Aimed at improving the quality of the source code written
in C language, ESCR collects the important points to be noted as part of the know-how for coding and
organizes them as practices and rules.
The purpose of this document is to be used as a reference guide for establishing coding conventions
in organizations and groups developing embedded software using C language, and for promoting the
standardization of coding styles and uniformity of source code quality. The rules in Ver. 1.1 comply with
C90, which was the most widely used C language standard at the time Ver. 1.1 was published. Recently,
more and more C language programmers are using C99 after it was released as the successive version of
C90. To respond to this trend, MISRA C was revised signicantly in March 2013 (and was issued as MISRA
C: 2012). In the process of revising ESCR Ver.1.1 to Ver.2.0, the following two objectives were set to align
with these recent developments in C language standard and MISRA C guidelines:
・
Make the rules compliant with C99, and easy for the programmers to use the new features
supported by C99;
・
Make ESCR consistent with MISRA C to which it is correlated, by reviewing and updating
the references to MISRA C according to its signicant revisions in 2013.
To secure the continuity from the previous version, Ver. 2.0 follows the same structure as Ver. 1.1. The
practices and rules carried over from the previous version are also numbered the same as in Ver. 1.1. To
support the language specications that have been extended in C99, various descriptions have been added to
Ver 2.0, including the introduction of new rules, supplementary explanatory texts, and additional compliant
and non-compliant coding examples. Moreover, in this document, the references to the rules in MISRA
C that have been updated as a part of the signicant revisions made in 2013 are numbered the same as in
MISRA C: 2012, while the references to the rules in MISRA C that now exist only in the previous version
are numbered the same as in MISRA C: 2004.
We sincerely hope that the effective use of ESCR Ver. 2.0 will lead to the improvement of embedded
software productivity and contribute to the attainment of high-quality software development.
July 2014
Software Reliability Enhancement Center, Technology Headquarters,
Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan
Copyright (c) 2014, IPA/SEC
Permission to copy and distribute this document is hereby granted provided that this notice is retained on all copies, that
copies are not altered, and that IPA/SEC is credited when the material is used to form other copyright policies.
* Software Reliability Enhancement Center, Technology Headquarters, Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan
