Understanding Legacy Code

• Analyzed interpreter (quake) built at DEC SRC

• Discovered latent bugs (ordinary lint can do this)

• Discovered programming conventions

  • Documented use of built-in types (int, char, bool)
  • Identified (and repaired) (nearly) abstract types

• Documented action of procedures

  • Use of global information, side-effects

• Enhanced documentation a common thread

  • Easier to read and write because formulaic
  • More trustworthy because checked

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