New LDRA Point Tool Enforces Programming Rules, Improving Software Quality and Consistency

Boston, MA, September 20, 2012 --(PR.com)-- LDRArules—easily configured—draws on industry’s largest collection of programming standards

LDRA, the leading provider of automated software verification, source code analysis and test tools, announces LDRArules™, a programming rule checker that brings together a collection of rules from a broad spectrum of programming standards. Implemented as a stand-alone product, LDRArules enables development teams to improve their software quality by selecting and adhering to relevant industry programming standards. Companies can easily configure LDRArules for a specific programming standard or choose to enforce in-house programming templates and improve their overall software development methodology.

LDRA Offers Industry’s Largest Collection of Coding Standards

For nearly 40 years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates code analysis and software testing for safety-, mission- and security-critical markets. Because programming errors are responsible for more than 70% of software defects, LDRA has actively worked on a number of standards bodies and organizations to develop programming standards that achieve early error identification and correction.

As a result, LDRA offers programming standard conformance for more than a dozen programming standards, including MISRA-C:1998, MISRA-C:2004, MISRA AC, MISRA C++:2008, CERT C, CERT J, CWE, HIS, JPL, JSF++ AV, High Integrity C++, SPARK Ada subset and the Ravenscar Profile. The programming standards provide programming rules across the primary languages used in embedded design: C, C++, Ada and Java.

Developers can choose rules for a specific industry standard or they can select a combination of rules from a variety of standards, creating customized templates tailored for their company and projects. LDRArules documents which rules have been selected, ensuring complete transparency of what programming rules have been implemented.

“LDRA’s aim is to enable companies to achieve zero-defect software,” stated Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director. “By simply implementing a programming standard, companies can eradicate 70% of their software defects and significantly decrease overall development cost. By automating an immediate check of code as it’s being written, software defects are identified at their inception, saving the tremendous time and cost of identifying errors late in the development lifecycle.”

Adherence to Programming Standards Offers Many Benefits

Compliance with programming standards enables developers to:

Promote portability and avoid unexpected results
Ensure there is no reliance placed on compiler or platform-specific constructs
Identify unreachable or infeasible code which often indicates a defect that will, at the very least, impact software maintainability
Prohibit certain language constructs known to be a source of common errors
Measurably reduce program complexity
Improve program testability, easing standard compliance and certifiability

HCC Embedded, a TCP/IP and file systems provider to companies developing software for medical, transport, industrial and aerospace markets, chose LDRA tools to enforce MISRA-C:2004 to ensure its products delivered superior quality, stability and portability for its customers. HCC Embedded’s CEO Dave Hughes confirmed, “LDRA’s tools helped us adopt a more disciplined process. We needed a standards checker that systematically enforced good programming methods.”

Hennell adds, “With this methodology, programming errors are identified when code is being written and, therefore, can be immediately corrected. This shortens the debug process and mitigates schedule, safety and security risk.”

About LDRA
For more than 40 years, LDRA has developed and driven the market for software that automates code analysis and software testing for safety-, mission-, security- and business-critical markets. Working with clients to achieve early error identification and full compliance with industry standards, LDRA traces requirements through static and dynamic analysis to unit testing and verificationfor a wide variety of hardware and software platforms. Boasting a worldwide presence, LDRA is headquartered in the UK with subsidiaries in the United States and an extensive distributor network. For more information on the LDRA tool suite, please visit: www.ldra.com.

Please send reader enquiries to:
Mark James
Email: mark.james@ldra.com