I am working on Embedded C, Task related implementation in OS. I have implemented the Linked List. Now it needs to minimize the use of pointers to satisfy MISRA C, in my present implementation I am searching for the best alternative for the Linked List, in Embedded OS for task operation.
It'd be easy to use a static array of structures to completely avoid pointers (you'd just use array indexes and not pointers). This has both advantages and disadvantages.
The disadvantages are:
you have to implement your own allocator (to allocate and free "array elements" within the static array)
the memory used for the array can't be used for any other purpose when it's not being used for the linked list
you have to determine a "max. number of elements that could possibly be needed"
it has all the same problems as pointers. E.g. you can access an array element that was freed, free the same array element multiple times, use an index that's out of bounds (including the equivalent of NULL if you decide to do something like use -1 to represent NULL_ELEMENT), etc.
The advantages are:
by implementing your own allocator you can avoid the mistakes caused by malloc(), including (e.g.) checking something isn't already free when freeing it and returning an error instead of trashing your own metadata
allocation can typically be simpler/faster, because you're only allocating/freeing one "thing" (array element) at a time and don't need to worry about allocating/freeing a variable number of contiguous "things" (bytes) at a time
entries in your list are more likely to be closer (in memory) to each other (unlike for malloc() where your entries are scattered among everything else you allocate), and this can improve performance (cache locality)
you have a "max. number of elements that could possibly be needed" to make it far easier to track down problems like (e.g.) memory leaks; and (where memory is limited) make it easier to determine things like worst case memory footprint
it satisfies pointless requirements (like "no pointers") despite not avoiding anything these requirements are intended to avoid