Code Spelunking: Exploring Cavernous Code Bases: Code diving through unfamiliar source bases is something we do far more often than write new code from scratch--make sure you have the right gear for the job.

Abstract

Try to remember your first day at your first software job. Do you recall what you were asked to do, after the human resources people were done with you? Were you asked to write a piece of fresh code? Probably not. It is far more likely that you were asked to fix a bug, or several, and to try to understand a large, poorly documented collection of source code. Of course, this doesn’t just happen to new graduates; it happens to all of us whenever we start a new job or look at a new piece of code. With experience we all develop a set of techniques for working with large, unfamiliar source bases. This is what I call code spelunking.

Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Management of computing and information systems

      • Project and people management

      • Software management

        • Software maintenance

• Software and its engineering

  • Software creation and management

    • Designing software

      • Software implementation planning

        • Software design techniques

    • Software development process management

      • Software development methods