Are there any formal approaches for familiarising oneself with a new or legacy codebase? [closed]

Posted by codecowboy on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by codecowboy
Published on 2012-11-21T21:12:54Z Indexed on 2012/11/22 5:12 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 254

Filed under:

unit-testing

|

refactoring

|

legacy

Possible Duplicate:
How do you dive into large code bases?

As a contractor, I often encounter legacy codebases which might have little or no supporting documentation.

Are there any techniques or best practices? I work with PHP and web applications, though also face situations in which I have to edit code in an unfamiliar language. How can I leave a codebase in better shape, learn something along the way and impress the team I'm working with?

© Programmers or respective owner

Related posts about unit-testing

Unit testing best practices for a unit testing newbie

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
In recent years, I have only written small components for people in larger projects or small tools. I have never written a unit test and it always seems like learning how to write them and actually making one takes a lot longer than simply firing up the program and testing for real. I am just about… >>> More
About unit testing a function in the zend framework and unit testing in general

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hello people, I am diving into the world of unit testing. And i am sort of lost. I learned today that unit testing is testing if a function works. I wanted to test the following function: public function getEventById($id) { return $this->getResource('Event')->getEventById($id); } So… >>> More
Unit testing a database connection and general questions on database-dependent code and unit testing

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, If I have a method which establishes a database connection, how could this method be tested? Returning a bool in the event of a successful connection is one way, but is that the best way? From a testability method, is it best to have the connection method as one method and the method to get… >>> More
What is the objective of unit testing?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I've been working with C# for the last 2 years, and I've never done any unit testing. I just need to know what the objective of unit testing is. What kind of results do we expect from unit testing? Is code quality checked by unit testing? In my view, unit testing is the job of testers; if that is… >>> More
Unit testing newbie team needs to unit test

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I'm working with a new team that has historically not done ANY unit testing. My goal is for the team to eventually employ TDD (Test Driven Development) as their natural process. But since TDD is such a radical mind shift for a non-unit testing team I thought I would just start off with writing unit… >>> More

Related posts about refactoring

Reconciling the Boy Scout Rule and Opportunistic Refactoring with code reviews

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I am a great believer in the Boy Scout Rule: Always check a module in cleaner than when you checked it out." No matter who the original author was, what if we always made some effort, no matter how small, to improve the module. What would be the result? I think if we all followed that simple… >>> More
Ubuntu 12.04 + Eclipse 64 bits key binding error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
The text is quite extense so, this is just a part of it: !SESSION 2012-11-23 10:15:52.442 ----------------------------------------------- eclipse.buildId=I20120608-1200 java.version=1.7.0_09 java.vendor=Oracle Corporation BootLoader constants: OS=linux, ARCH=x86_64, WS=gtk, NL=en_US Command-line… >>> More
How far did DevExpress get with Javascript refactoring?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Over a year ago, I remember watching one of DevExpress evangelists previewing or at least promoting rich Javascript refactoring (beyond just limited intellisense) within the Visual Studio shell, I recall part of CodeRush/DevExpress product line. I was excited. On checking today (lmgtfy) I can find… >>> More
Version control of software refactoring

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
What is the best way of doing version control of large scale refactoring? My typical style of programming (actually of writing documents as well) is getting something out as quickly as possible and then refactoring it. Typically, refactoring takes place at the same time as adding other functionality… >>> More
How would you rewrite/refactor this ?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
Old application that is used by 50-60.000 paying customers. Company is several hundred people big. Application has a lot of business critical code (30% of all code) written in classic asp. Application has a lot more .net code. Application has a COM+ bridge for enabling asp to "talk" to .net Organization… >>> More