Development Testing with Static Analysis

I’ve recently come across an EE Times article written by Coverity stressing the benefits of static analysis and how it can help finding potential issues in the code early. They mentioned 3 static analysis techniques: Dataflow analysis This technique can find the defect in the listing below during compile time.

If value of x passed into the function is not zero, p is assigned a null pointer with p=0. Then, the next conditional check (x!=0) takes a true branch and in the next line p is dereferenced, leading to a null pointer dereference. This type of issue can be detected at compiled time with dataflow analysis. Interprocedural analysis This technique can find defects across function and method boundaries. See listing below:

There are 3 functions: example_leak, create_S and zero_alloc. Interprocedural analysis  can go through the code and identify the memory leak.  The analysis engine has to trace the […]

Select an ARM MCU during Development with Atollic TrueSTUDIO for ARM

Atollic has released the latest version of TrueSTUDIO development tool for ARM, a C/C++ development tool for embedded developer that looks similar to Eclipse. It supports micro-controllers from a number of semiconductor manufacturers, making it possible to switch MCU supplier during the design process. This release of TrueSTUDIO supports several ARM MCU cores such as ARM7, ARM9, Cortex-M0, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3 and Cortex-M4 processors. It also includes device-specific support for an extensive list of ARM processor-based micro-controller families, including: Atmel AT91SAM, EnergyMicro EFM32, Freescale Kinetis, Fujitsu FM3, STMicroelectronics STM32, Texas Instruments Stellaris and Toshiba TX. As well as an optimizing C/C++ compiler and a multiprocessor-aware debugger, the tool also has serial wire viewer tracing, graphical UML diagram editors for model-based design and architecture, performs code-quality analysis via TrueINSPECTOR and TrueANALYSER and features a test-automation toolbox (TureVERIFIER). There is also an ECLIPSE-based IDE with editor, x86 C/C++ build and debug tools for development of […]

Android Scores Last in Open Governance Index

Vision Mobile recently released a report about different open source projects analyzing their openness via their Open Governance Index. The full report (45-pages) examines: Open source cultural roots and working upstream vs downstream Open source licenses vs governance models Analysis and classification of governance models In-depth reviews of Android, Qt, Symbian, MeeGo, Mozilla, WebKit, Linux and Eclipse Best practices in creating an open source project The governance index is not only based on the percentage of source code that is open, but on the whole software development including the transparency of the decision making-process, the involvement of the community in all aspects of the project,  compliance requirements and more. There are a total of 13 metrics accross 4  area of governance: Access: availability of the latest source code, developer support mechanisms, public roadmap, and transparency of decision-making Development: the ability of developers to influence the content and direction of the […]

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