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WANTED: Recommendations (tools and advice) for facilitating the
process of "code reading" as I begin the process of rewriting a big
web application written in ASP (VBscript, not .NET) and SQL.
I've got a big ol' pile of code that I wrote two years ago. I need to
get my head wrapped around it and refamiliarize myself with it. The
ultimate objective is not for *me* to rewrite it, but to document the
code (comments AND external docs) so that I can successfully manage
somebody else rewriting (and upgrading) it.
The code consists of ASP (VBScript) and Microsoft SQL: Tables, Views,
Stored Procedures, Functions and Triggers.
I believe there are tools (Code browsers? Really smart text editors?
File search tools?) that can facilitate the process of "code reading",
that is, the process of studying the code exhaustively in order to
fully "grok" it in order to refactor/upgrade it.
The tools I hope you'll help me find go beyond your typical "file
search and replacement" tool. I already have a great text searching
program by Funduc software that is somewhat helpful for codebrowsing,
but doesn't offer as much help as I need. However, there are probably
search-and-replacement tools that have a feature set specifically
designed for code browsing. Feel free to recommend anything!
Here are some ways these tools (or tactics) could help me...
--) Dependency tracking: I'm guessing that there are tools that
elucidate which parts of the code rely on what and vice versa.
--) Code visualization. Being able to view a diagram of my
dependencies would be immensely helpful.
--) Code surfing: being able to surf my code like the web would be
excellent. For example, double-clicking a function call would show me
the code, regardless of where that function is located. Furthermore,
while viewing the function, being able to see a list of routines that
call that function would be very helpful as well.
--) Cross-language browsing: Since the ASP depends on SQL objects,
being able to browse between the ASP code and SQL it depends on would
be very helpful. Since this feature (like all the features I'm hoping
for) seems unlikely, I'd be satisfied to use SQL-only tools in
parallel with ASP-only tools.
Since my awareness level is so low when it comes to these magic tools
that I HOPE exist, you and I will need to use the clarification
process to iteratively clarify the direction and scope of your
research. Perhaps a good starting point is to post the titles of
tools you've found, along with the amount of time you've spent. Then,
based on preliminary info, we can determine the next step.
Thank you and good luck. |
