{"id":9172,"date":"2019-12-16T12:55:03","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T11:55:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/?p=9172"},"modified":"2026-03-26T16:58:45","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T20:58:45","slug":"misra-c-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/2019\/12\/16\/misra-c-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"MISRA C anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I have always liked the C language. Initially the appeal was its power and the possibility to write very succinct code. My early experiences with the language [at which time I was often involved in tech support] quickly taught me that writing readable and maintainable code was a necessity, as the language can quickly lead you astray. With this in mind, it was 15+ years ago that my attention was drawn to MISRA C \u2026<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>MISRA C is not a language, but rather a set of guidelines to using standard C to write reliable [safe] code. The standard was defined by the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association [hence, MISRA] and originally targeted at developers of automotive software. It was quickly realized that nothing about the standard was <em>specific<\/em> to automotive applications; it was just as applicable to other industry sectors where reliability of code was critical &#8211; e.g. medical, industrial, etc.<\/p>\n<p>The first edition of the standard &#8211; <em>Development Guidelines for Vehicle Based Software<\/em> &#8211; was published in 1994, so this year is the 25th anniversary! That is a long time in high-tech and interest and take-up of MISRA C has never been higher. You can read more about the anniversary and history of MISRA C <a href=\"https:\/\/www.misra.org.uk\/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=pHorDgiWiPs%3d&amp;tabid=59\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.misra.org.uk\/MISRAHome\/MISRA25\/tabid\/197\/Default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>My personal involvement in MISRA C has been in recent years. I present on the topic at conferences, webinars, etc. Indeed, this is a subject that I will be addressing at Embedded World next year &#8211; watch this space. A couple of years ago, I was invited to join the MISRA C Working Group. This is the team who maintain the standard, publish updated editions and answer users\u2019 questions. So far, my contribution has been modest, but I have appreciated the insight into the thought and hard work that goes into the maintenance of such a standard.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/colinwalls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6579\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/linkedin.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/colin_walls\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6583\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/twitter.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/colinwalls.author\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6591\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/facebook.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\" \/><\/a><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-6599\" src=\"http:\/\/s3-blogs.mentor.com\/colinwalls\/files\/2014\/01\/wordpress.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"44\" height=\"44\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have always liked the C language. Initially the appeal was its power and the possibility to write very succinct&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[313,300,564],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-9172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-c","tag-embedded-software","tag-misra-c"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9172"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10848,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172\/revisions\/10848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9172"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=9172"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=9172"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=9172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}