reading other people's code

[id...@world.std.com]

In a day or so I will be faced with a large, complicated and completely
undocumented/uncommented piece of software. Some or all of the datanames
and sparse comments will be in French which I won't understand very well.
My questions are:
1. Is there any public domain program someone can recommend that can
help me in any way sort through this mess? I will not have the luxury of
prolonged study before I will have to maintain it.
2. I was looking over the O'Reilly book called "Practical C" which
mentions "Electronic Archaeology" on the back cover. I couldn't find a
section on it in the contents/index so I didn't buy it. Is there a book
or article someone can recommend that would detail an efficient method of
sifting through other people's code? I want to both maintain/enhance this
code as well as write some documentation for anyone else who may inherit
this mess.

Steve Feinstein
--
Steven R. Feinstein
Email: id...@world.std.com

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of." -Pascal

[Mark]

In article <IDSPS.93A...@world.std.com> id...@world.std.com ( ) writes:
>
>In a day or so I will be faced with a large, complicated and completely
>undocumented/uncommented piece of software. Some or all of the datanames
>and sparse comments will be in French which I won't understand very well.

Convert it to your own style by hand step by step using regression testing
on a test suite between each step.

In this way you will come to know everything about the original program by
memory, become intimately familiar with it, and will never again have to
worry about running into problems maintaining it for the rest of your life
since the information will be irretrievably burned into your brain no matter
how much you might try to forget it. When you die and they open up your
head, they'll even find the burn scars in the cortex.

[Jim Hill]

In article <1phum7...@uwm.edu>

That's not a joke, that's the voice of bitter experience. Rewrite the code
as part of reading it for the first time. Nothing else will get you so
far so fast.

[P D H]

jth...@oracle.us.com (Jim Hill) writes:

>>In this way you will come to know everything about the original program by
>>memory, become intimately familiar with it, and will never again have to
>>worry about running into problems maintaining it for the rest of your life
>>since the information will be irretrievably burned into your brain no matter
>>how much you might try to forget it. When you die and they open up your
>>head, they'll even find the burn scars in the cortex.
>
>That's not a joke, that's the voice of bitter experience. Rewrite the code
>as part of reading it for the first time. Nothing else will get you so
>far so fast.

When I first saw the start of this thread my first thought was to post with
the advice to just rewrite the code, maybe gradually, but to definitely do so.

But then I decided to go ahead and read the reply thread, but I still think
it needs to be seconded (third in this case :) !!!
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