Building Cppcheck - What We Learned from 17 Years of Development

Explore a comprehensive conference talk from CppCon 2024 where Daniel Marjamäki, the creator of Cppcheck, shares valuable insights gained from 17 years of developing the popular static analysis tool for C/C++ code. Learn about the core philosophy that has guided Cppcheck's evolution, focusing on minimal false positives and user-friendly implementation. Discover how the tool's approach to configuration balances ease of use with analytical depth, and understand their strict definition of false positives that ensures only genuine issues are flagged in well-written code. Gain insights into how the open-source community contributes to Cppcheck's development through collaborative efforts, including large-scale testing on Debian's source code. Examine the role of abstractions, compiler annotations, and contracts in improving static code analysis tools' precision and performance. The 53-minute presentation offers both technical depth and practical wisdom for developers interested in code quality and static analysis tools.