The activities that occur after deployment of a software system. This includes making modifications to released systems, training, operating, and transitioning to support organizations.
63
votes
27answers
4k views
How do you dive into large code bases?
What tools and techniques do you use for exploring and learning an unknown code base?
I am thinking of tools like grep, ctags, unit-tests, functional test, class-diagram generators, call graphs, ...
369
votes
19answers
69k views
I've inherited 200K lines of spaghetti code — what now?
I hope this isn't too general of a question; I could really use some seasoned advice.
I am newly employed as the sole "SW Engineer" in a fairly small shop of scientists who have spent the last 10-20 ...
76
votes
8answers
3k views
What is the most effective way to add functionality to unfamiliar, structurally unsound code? [duplicate]
This is probably something everyone has to face during the development sooner or later.
You have an existing code written by someone else, and you have to extend it to work under new requirements.
...
29
votes
7answers
1k views
Code maintenance: keeping a bad pattern when extending new code for being consistent, or not?
I have to extend an existing module of a project. I don't like the way it has been done (lots of anti-pattern involved, like copy/pasted code). I don't want to perform a complete refactor for many ...
41
votes
24answers
2k views
How do you go from a so so programmer to a great one? [closed]
How do you go from being an okay programmer to being able to write maintainable clean code? For example David Hansson was writing Basecamp when in the process he created Rails as part of writing ...
21
votes
13answers
2k views
How do people manage to write and maintain extremely complex and hard to read code?
Reading SQLite source code is IMO mission impossible. Yet it is a usable piece of quite complex software (it's a full-blown embedded database after all) that can be downloaded, compiled and used from ...
20
votes
8answers
778 views
When do you rebuild an application or keep on fixing the existing one [duplicate]
Possible Duplicates:
When is a BIG Rewrite the answer?
When is it time to start afresh instead of trying to rewrite the existing project?
Have you ever been involved in a BIG Rewrite?
I ...
7
votes
2answers
394 views
How do you call the process of taking a part of a function and making an individual function of it?
I know there was a technical term for this. I'm just can't remember what it was.
If the title needs clarification, here is what I mean; If this is the old code:
Result foobar(Param1,Param2,Param3) {
...
23
votes
11answers
800 views
How do you stay productive when dealing with extremely badly written code?
I don't have much experience in working in software industry, being self-taught and having participated in open source before deciding to take a job. Now that I work for money, I also have to deal ...
14
votes
5answers
584 views
Is there a measure of code rot?
I'm dealing, again, with a messy C++ application, tons of classes with confusing names, objects have pointers into each other and all over, longwinded Boost and STL data types, etc. (Pause and ...
7
votes
7answers
1k views
Is recursion an instance of being “too clever” when programming?
I've read several books and learned through experience that optimizing code to the point where it is inscrutable, or coming up with an extremely fast but extremely complex solution to a problem is not ...
3
votes
4answers
470 views
What can I do to maintain respect for a poorly written codebase? [duplicate]
In my job I have to maintain a poorly written codebase which is both hard to understand, has tons of comments that are just plain wrong, has a bunch of weird decisionmaking going on in it and a whole ...
338
votes
27answers
74k views
I'm doing 90% maintenance and 10% development, is this normal?
I have just recently started my career as a web developer for a medium sized company. As soon as I started I got the task of expanding an existing application (badly coded, developed by multiple ...
42
votes
18answers
5k views
How to manage a developer who has poor communication skills
I manage a small team of developers on an application which is in the mid-point of its lifecycle, within a big firm. This unfortunately means there is commonly a 30/70 split of Programming tasks to ...
62
votes
12answers
2k views
Is there a point to including a “change log” in every code file when you are using version control?
I was under the impression that a version control system eliminated the need to have "change logs" plastered everywhere in the code. I've often seen the continued use of change logs, including big ...
20
votes
1answer
691 views
What is the effect of creating unit tests during development on time to develop as well as time spent in maintenance activities?
I'm a consultant and I am going to introduce unit tests to all developers at my client site. My goal is to ensure that all new applications should have unit tests for all classes created.
The client ...
15
votes
9answers
904 views
Are optional parameters helpful or a hindrance to application maintenance?
As stated in the title, are optional parameters, such as those used in C# helpful or are they a hindrance to application maintenance and should be avoided as they can make the code harder to ...
18
votes
7answers
574 views
How to improve the training of students regarding maintainability?
Maintainability is a major stake of professional software development. Indeed, maintenance is nearly always the longest part of a software life cycle, as it lasts from the project release until ...
6
votes
4answers
245 views
Communications regarding maintainability of code
I'm in search of good language or metaphors to discuss the maintainability of code with non-technical folks (PMs, business sponsors &c).
In particular, I've recently created a few one-off, ...
15
votes
8answers
1k views
Why are websites (even this one) sometimes “Down for Maintenance”?
I have personally never done this. I don't understand why so many sites do, if you do your development on a development server why would you ever need to shut down your production site?
I have always ...
10
votes
4answers
359 views
Code duplication with no obvious abstraction
Have you ever encountered a case of code duplication where, upon looking at the lines of code, you couldn't fit a thematic abstraction to it that faithfully describes its role in the logic? And what ...
10
votes
12answers
817 views
Maintainability of Boolean logic - Is nesting if statements needed?
Which of these is better for maintainability?
if (byteArrayVariable != null)
if (byteArrayVariable .Length != 0)
//Do something with byteArrayVariable
OR
if ((byteArrayVariable != ...
2
votes
3answers
233 views
Study a project to be able to maintain it in future
I've joined as a fresher (trainee) a software company developing for Windows Store. I don't know much about C#. My company has started Windows Store development recently. They didn't do .Net ...
5
votes
6answers
237 views
Policy and practice on code maintenance
I just came out of University and have been working at this company for roughly 8 months, while I was given the title of developer, most of the time I have spent on is fixing and debugging other ...
4
votes
3answers
267 views
Functional testing before code checkin
I am working on a project with legacy code where it does not have much code coverage. One of the idea to improve that is to enforce a rule that each code check-in must have test, not only test but ...
0
votes
1answer
119 views
Functional document from code
I am a Sr java Developer and have recently joined a new team. Here I have been asked to create a functional document looking at the code of a legacy application. This application was written about ...
