figueroa@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Janet Figueroa) (04/12/90)
GREETINGS and wishes for the best the world can give to everyone out there!!
I have a peculiar task and would like to ask for opinions / advice.
I am one of a team of software engineers (4 in total). I work for a small
company and have utilized the "ad hoc" methodology of program design and
development. The company just went through a change of technical manage-
ment to one who is a stickler for documentation. Their approach is to
require going from the original C source code files and constructing
structure charts / diagrams / data flows.
So here I am faced with 200 - 300 thousand lines of code with minimum
comments. I have no qualms in doing this, but I would like to do it
intelligently.
My questions / comments are as follows :
(1) Does the above activity constitute reverse engineering?
(2) I know that Yourdon has published many books. Yet is there a
more efficient way to learn his methodology?
(3) Could you give me any suggestion as to what the "real world"
requirements are for documentation? Textbook / journal
references will be appreciated.
(4) Has anyone gone through this process? Would you mind if I
learned from your experiences?
(5) How should I handle device drivers?
(6) My environment has this configuration :
Compaq 386/25
SCO Xenix 386 2.3.2
CGA graphics card
mono display
110 Mb hard disk
I have the option of using a SCSI controlled WMRM optical drive.
Thanx in advance for all your replies. E-mail would be more easily accessed.
I will post a summary if there are any requests.
Janet C. Figueroa
e-mail : figueroa@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
s-mail : Bio-Rad Genetic Sytems Group
3316 Spring Garden Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
phone : (215)382-7800