The last few years have seen a dramatic increase in the use of software, in particular, the use of embedded software. As this software is given greater responsibility for flying airplanes, driving cars, and operating power plants, safety concerns increase. The growing need for high-integrity software and the concern over the use of C, the most common implementation language [Hat94], has lead to research projects such as the safe C compiler [ABG94] and Les Hatton's recent book Safer C [Hat94].
The growing popularity of object-oriented programming and the explosive growth of the use of C++, has created a need to consider the implication of using C++ in high-integrity and safety-critical systems. This paper addresses creating such software in two parts. First, it applies the guidelines from a recent assessment of software languages for use in safety-critical systems [SoH95] to the C++ programming language. Second, it considers a series of techniques and examples for creating safer C++ programs.