C++

Pass and return primitives as value to and from functions [Breymann] p177 ,[Davis]

Pass objects as const reference to functions and omit const only when the function is designed to modify the object [Breymann] p177

Return objects which are attributes of the class as const reference and objects wich are not class attributes (especially stack and heap objects) as value! [Breymann] p177

Prefer references to pointers. References (and reference types) are just syntactic sugar for pointers and do not cause runtime overhead [Breymann?], [Quiroz]

To avoid memory leaks encapsulate new and delete in the constructor and destructor of a class. Than create the instance of the class as automatic variable. [?]

Always declare constant primitives and objects with const

int is the most efficient type for local variables. (No filling with zero's necessary) [Davis]

Larger data types as int are less efficient [Davis]

Use the size_t and ptdiff_t types for memory calculations, not the long type [Davis]

Unsigned types tend to be more efficient then signed [Davis]

Plain char is always the most efficient char type. For signed or unsigned char it depends on the target which one is more efficient. [Davis]

Declare global data and functions as static whenever possible but avoid static variables at function level whenever possible [Davis]

Use the restrict keyword for data that is modified by one certain pointer [Davis]

Declare variables in the innermost scope possible [Davis]

Prefer float types to double (Use 3.0f instead of 3.0 and sinf() instead of sin()) [Davis]

It most often more efficient to use the stack rather than the heap for variable length arrays. Expamle! [Davis]

Use a mutex for concurrent data access [Obiltschnig]

Do not use exceptions in realtime / embedded systems. They may have non-deterministic runtime behauviour. Use goto as alternative. [Obiltschnig], [Quiroz]

Use consts rather than preprocessor defines [Quiroz]

To avoid name collisions use namespaces rather than prefixes or classes [Quiroz]

Aviod Run-Time Type Identification (RTTI) at least for realtime / embedded systems [Quiroz]