This book defines a C++ coding standard that should be valid and usable for almost all programmers. ISO 9000 as well as the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) states that coding standards are mandatory for any company with quality ambitions. Developing such a coding standard is, however, a non-trivial task, particularly for a complex multi- paradigm language like C++. In this book we give you a good start for a programming standard for a particular company or project. Such a standard is often written by the most experienced programmers in a company. If a quality manager responsible for the development of such a standard instead select this book as the base for the coding standard, experienced programmers can be relieved from this arduous task and instead continue to do what they prefer to do, designing the company products. This book should also be of great interest for quality aware C++ programmers trying to find ways of improving their code.
Since 1992, when our public domain "Ellemtel" C++ coding standard was released, we have greatly expanded our material with insights from many years of C++ development in multi-million dollar projects, as well as inside knowledge of what is going on in the standardization of C++. We have carefully selected and concisely formulated the guidelines we believe are really important, and divided them into rules and recommendations, based upon how serious it is to deviate from the standard. This is how we can give novices good advice while still not restraining experts from using the full power of the language. Most rules and recommendations are written so that it should be possible to check with a tool if they are broken or not. Text and code examples explain each individual rule and recommendation.