Re: [avr-gcc-list] OT - in defence of MISRA (was Feature request ...)

[Douglas Dotson]

I've dealt with many many coding standard over my
many years in the field. Each has its pros and cons.
My point was that none do all that much to reduce
problems, a skilled programmer is the bottom line.
Mostly a metric by which management can judge
something they have trouble relating to. Calm down,
I've been on both sides for many years. Some managers
are former programmers (as was I) and are much better
at managing programming projects. Coding standard
are just a small piece of the pie. Unfortunately,
many of the standards are touted as THE SOLUTION
to increasing productivity and reliabilty, and 
fall short of that promise.

Doug

--- Graham Davies <address@hidden> wrote:

> "Douglas Dotson" wrote [in part]
> 
> > ... These MISRA guidelines seem to me to be just
> > another in a very long line of attempts to make
> > programs better by enforcing rules. My experience
> > is that success using this approach is
> questionable
> > at best.
> 
> I basically agree with this when you are considering
> any individual,
> qualified and experienced software engineer.  To cut
> the babble about my
> personal experience, I think rules have a place in
> environments where you
> have teams of indifferently qualified engineers who
> have not yet had time to
> develop personal insight into what is good and what
> may bring trouble.
> 
> Example follows:
> 
> I don't consider myself particularly inexperienced. 
> Yet, when I brought up
> my problem with a compiler generating multiple
> stores to a volatile variable
> as a result of one assignment in the source, what I
> took away from the
> discussion was that, whether or not the compiler
> violated ANSI C, I should
> not have trusted it in this case.  A "rule" figured
> out by you guys in
> committee would have saved me some trouble.
> 
> Graham.
> 
> 
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