Book excerpt: Barr Group's Embedded C Coding Standard was developed to help firmware engineers minimize defects in embedded systems. Unlike the majority of coding standards, this standard focuses on practical rules that keep bugs out - including techniques designed to improve the maintainability and portability of embedded software. The rules in this coding standard include a set of guiding principles, as well as specific naming conventions and other rules for the use of data types, functions, preprocessor macros, variables, and other C language constructs. Individual rules that have been demonstrated to reduce or eliminate certain types of defects are highlighted. The BARR-C standard is distinct from, yet compatible with, the MISRA C Guidelines for Use of the C Language in Critical Systems. Programmers can easily combine rules from the two standards as needed.