Re: A Trend Towards Lower Software Maintenance Budgets?

"Malcolm McLean" <regniztar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

"Flash Gordon" <spam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

None of which contradicts what I said. I'm sure you do not go
throwing away 10's of kLOC on every change prior to passing it over
for the re-implementation, and I'm sure it does not get thrown away
every time it needs a change after that point. I would also be
surprised if each time you need to change a module within that code
base you threw it away, or each time you changed a function within
the module.

Throw away code when it needs throwing away, modify it when it needs
modifying.


Generally it is reckoned that you need to start over if you end up
modifying more than 20%. That's a much lower threshold than was
previously accepted.

Can you cite a report stating that? It depends very much on the
application structure and how it was coded.

It could well be that a suite of modules all bridge into the rest of the
application through a well defined API. These modules could be, say,
50%, of the entire app. But rewriting these doesn't mean touching the
rest.


XP tends to look at existing practises, and instead of saying "here's
an inefficiency we must stamp out" it says "why is this practise
current?". Then it formalises it by incorporating it into the
method. So partly it is just political, things we've always done - had
to do - are now part of "the method" so there's no time wasted
apologising for them or disguising them. Rewriting code is a case in
point. It is given a fancy name - "refactoring" to get it past the men
in suits.
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: A Trend Towards Lower Software Maintenance Budgets?
    ... away 10's of kLOC on every change prior to passing it over for the ... modifying more than 20%. ... XP tends to look at existing practises, and instead of saying "here's an ... You should read a decent book on refactoring, ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: A Trend Towards Lower Software Maintenance Budgets?
    ... away 10's of kLOC on every change prior to passing it over for the re-implementation, and I'm sure it does not get thrown away every time it needs a change after that point. ... Generally it is reckoned that you need to start over if you end up modifying more than 20%. ... XP tends to look at existing practises, and instead of saying "here's an inefficiency we must stamp out" it says "why is this practise current?". ...
    (comp.lang.c)
  • Re: Re-use the argument?
    ... Modifying a parameter is no more good or bad style than modifying any ... some other languages is like insisting that splitting infinitives in ... equivalent to passing some default value. ...
    (comp.lang.c)