Our Articles

  • Static code analysis and the new language standard C++0x

    01.04.2010
    The article discusses the new capabilities of C++ language described in the standard C++0x and supported in Visual Studio 2010. By the example of PVS-Studio we will see how the changes in the language influence static code analysis tools. Read more

  • The essence of the VivaCore code analysis library

    09.01.2008
    The article tells developers about VivaCore library, preconditions of its creation, its possibilities, structure and scope of use. This article was written simultaneously with the development of VivaCore library and that's why some of the details of the final realization may differ from the features described here. But this won't prevent the developers from getting acquainted with the general work principles of the library, mechanisms of analysis and processing of C and C++ source code. Read more

  • How to make fewer errors at the stage of code writing. Part N4

    14.12.2011
    This is the fourth post in which I want to share with you some useful observations on error patterns and the ways of fighting them. This time I will touch upon the subject of handling rare and emergency conditions in programs. While examining a number of applications, I came to a conclusion that the error handling code is one of the most unreliable parts in C/C++ programs' sources. What are the consequences of such defects? An application must generate the message "file X is not found" but instead it crashes and forces the user to make guesses about what he/she is doing wrong. A program handling a data base produces an incomprehensible message instead of telling the user that there is just a field filled in incorrectly. Let's try to fight against this type of errors that haunt our users. Read more

  • PVS-Studio advertisement - static analysis of C/C++ code

    25.10.2011
    This document advertises the PVS-Studio static analyzer. It describes how using PVS-Studio reduces the number of errors in code of C/C++/C++11 projects and costs on code testing, debugging and maintenance. A lot of examples of errors are cited found by the analyzer in various Open-Source projects. The document describes PVS-Studio at the time of version 4.38 on October 12-th, 2011, and therefore does not describe the capabilities of the tool in the next versions. To learn about new capabilities, visit the product's site http://www.viva64.com or search for an updated version of this article. Read more

  • PVS-Studio: analyzing ReactOS's code

    01.09.2011
    Having checked ReactOS's code I managed to fulfill three of my wishes at once. Firstly, I had wanted for a long time to write an article on a common project. It's not interesting to check the source code of projects like Chromium: its quality is too high and a lot of resources are spent to maintain it, which are unavailable to common projects. Secondly, it's a good example to demonstrate the necessity of static analysis in a large project, especially when it is developed by a diverse and distributed team. Thirdly, I've got a confirmation that PVS-Studio is becoming even better and more useful. Read more

  • How to make fewer errors at the stage of code writing. Part N3

    07.07.2011
    This is the third article where I will tell you about a couple of new programming methods that can help you make your code simpler and safer. You may read the previous two posts here [1] and here [2]. This time we will take samples from the Qt project. Read more

  • How we test the code analyzer

    05.07.2011
    The article describes the testing technologies used when developing PVS-Studio static code analyzer. The developers of the tool for programmers talk about the principles of testing their own program product which can be interesting for the developers of similar packages for processing text data or source code. Read more

  • PVS-Studio vs Chromium

    23.05.2011
    Good has won this time. To be more exact, source codes of the Chromium project have won. Chromium is one of the best projects we have checked with PVS-Studio. Read more

  • Difficulties of comparing code analyzers, or don't forget about usability

    31.03.2011
    Users' desire to compare different code analyzers is natural and understandable. However, it's not so easy to fulfill this desire as it may seem at first sight. The point is that you don't know what particular factors must be compared. Read more

  • How to make fewer errors at the stage of code writing. Part N2

    29.03.2011
    This is the second article on avoiding certain errors at the early stage of code writing. In the previous post, we have already advised you to avoid a large number of calculations in one expression. However, we should investigate this question in detail. Let's see what's dangerous about complex expressions and how we can avoid many logical errors. Read more

  • How to make fewer errors at the stage of code writing. Part N1

    09.03.2011
    I've arrived at the source code of a widely know instant messenger Miranda IM. Together with various plugins, this is a rather large project whose size is about 950 thousand code lines in C and C++. And like any other considerable project with a long development history, it has rather many errors and misprints. Read more

  • Intel IPP Samples for Windows - error correction

    27.01.2011
    This is one of my posts on how PVS-Studio makes programs safer. That is where and what types of errors it detects. This time it is samples demonstrating handling of the IPP 7.0 library (Intel Performance Primitives Library) we are going to examine. Read more