CCIDE

I recently had the opportunity to try out CCide, a source code analyzer that has some pretty impressive features. This tool allows you to read C, C++, BASIC, or bash source code containing embedded decision tables from stdin, expands the tables, copies the remaining statements and forms a compilable C or C++ source module, executable bash script, or interpretable BASIC program.

One of the best things about CCide is that it avoids erratic side effects by evaluating all condition expressions at exactly the same time, and by performing all evaluations and actions in the original sequence. This makes debugging and testing much easier since you can be confident that everything is running as expected.

In the latest release, there have been a number of valuable improvements. One of the most significant changes is numerous fixes to BASH script generation. Additionally, CC comment recognition has been added making it so that if //DECISION_TABLE: is encountered in a C program, it will use "//" for generated comments instead of /* .... */. The standard C comment recognition and generation has also been fixed.

To make testing more efficient, there is a new environment variable, CCIDEW, to the ccide script. If CCIDEW is empty, the ccide script will attempt to find the ccidew program and set the CCIDEW variable equal to its location; otherwise, the script will attempt to use the program at the CCIDEW location.

Other new features include the addition of logic to suppress unnecessary condition evaluation and a -p PREFIX option to substitute PREFIX for CCIDE in generated code. NEWGROUP in condition stub replaces ccide_group == $$ and unused case labels have been eliminated to reduce compiler warnings.

Finally, some security enhancements have been made, including replacing the typedef, CCIDE-BIT, with unsigned long, and the addition of a new target (make flaws) to Makefile for systems with flawfinder installed. Overall, CCide is an effective and user-friendly tool that can benefit programmers of all levels.