[Jeremy Higdon]
> Is there a little FAQ of C constructions you should not use if you
> are writing kernel code? It took a little doing to figure out that
> it was the switch that was causing trouble and not the shifts and
> arithmetic operations, and I'd like to avoid that in the future :-).
Here are some of the big ones:
* 64-bit division. Most such is by powers of two so you can use shifts
instead. Probably the compiler should optimize this case
automatically, but gcc doesn't, currently.
* floating point. Use fixed point integers. Floating point registers
(at least on i386) are not saved/restored in the right places
(because doing so is very expensive on some CPUs), so you'll clobber
someone else's context.
* MMX. See floating point.
* excess stack usage. The kernel stack is very very small, so don't
waste it. Large automatic arrays are BAD. Use globals or dynamic
allocation.
* C++ exceptions, run-time types (RTTI) and other
features-of-the-month. Stick to C and you'll be OK.
* global variables initialized to 0. Not necessary, as uninitialized
globals are zeroed automatically, and that way they don't take up
space in the on-disk image. This is a concern for embedded systems.
Also make sure to read Documentation/CodingStyle for, well, coding style.
Peter
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