Software Surgery
Keith Gallagher, Keith.Gallagher@cmis.csiro.au
CMIS and Loyola College (USA)
Tuesday, April 7, 1998: 11AM.
Abstract
Imagine that "Pat the Programmer," who could be a developer
or a
maintainer, is sitting at a terminal staring at a piece of code and
comtemplating a change.
Pat asks the following:
1. Can I analytically determine if the change is as small as I believe?
2. Can I be sure that I don't introduce new errors with the change?
3. Are there any approaches to changing the code that will minimize
my effort?
The answers to Pat's questions are "Yes!" This talk will show
software engineers how to put hard boundaries on the effects of a
change, whether in devlopment or maintenance, and guarantee that no
new errors ripple beyond these boundaries. This in turn substantially
reduces evolution effort. The method is applicable to a wide variety
of programming languages and certainly addresses the year 2000
problem.
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