On 2/20/07, Whil Hentzen (Pro*) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > How many of you have inherited someone else's system?
That's what I do for a living. > It can provide extra work for the person on the other end of the > suicide-prevention hotline... or it can be kinda fun. Or you can gather around the bar at the Milwaukee Hyatt for a "Can you top this?" session with Andy, Laura, Doug and others... we had fun. > What types of things to do you after getting a mess-o-code dumped in > your lap? We're assuming, of course, that the documentation consists of > well, you know. Hopefully you've found the MAIN.PRG, and have all of the > code, but let's not assume anything past that. Find the main project, if there is one (my bar war story involved a CD with thousands of files, no subdirectories, and a half dozen projects named TEST01.PJX, TEST02.PJX, TEMP99.PJX, etc.) Create a new clean project with the main file, do a rebuild to find all referenced code and establish only a clean set of paths, do a build all and identify and resolve all compilation errors. Run it through the code counter I talked about in the "Software Maintenance" session years ago. That often red-flags issues right there. Audit the code: using forms derived from DevGuide, we pick out a percentage of forms, classes, menus, programs and determine the level of code and obfuscation involved. Picking a random set of codes has unearthed fascinating issues. Code and forms can be found on http://www.tedroche.com/papers.php, top of the right column, iirc. Run the database design through xCase and map it out as cleanly as possible. Use the xCase reports and color ERD printouts to show the client what they have. -- Ted Roche Ted Roche & Associates, LLC http://www.tedroche.com _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. This statement is added to the messages for those lawyers who are too stupid to see the obvious.
