Modifications to Source Code
Mark the header area of the source code systematically
Find a unique group of characters to represent the organization in remarks, which also helps to locate remarks.
Mark out entire lines; never bother with replacing a few characters unless correcting a misspelling made today.
Replace contiguous lines
Replace entire routines when only a few old lines remain
Massive Changes
Normal maintenance changes a small percentage of the total program. For annual maintenance, keeping two years is plenty. In other words, keep the remarks and cross outs from last year. Make new cross outs for this year, and insert the new code
Somewhere between 10 and 30 percent, as changes increase, the best policy is to re-write the entire program. The old program should have remarks pointing to the new program, which should reference the old program. Obviously, the old program should go to the archive.
Several times during the last forty years, a company has adopted a new nomenclature. Semesters became terms; sales tickets became sales orders; xxx. Other times, the manager decided that all variables should have a prefix. The variable name_last became stu_last_name; account became stu_account. In another situation, the shop adopted objects for some common ideas. The result was a change in variable names; dept_name became dept.name because of the dot notation. Such changes can have mammoth effects on source code. My suggestion has been to spread the changes across the normal calendar of expected changes and not to rush to make changes. When programmers have lulls, the changes might fill the schedule.
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Find a unique group of characters to represent the organization in remarks, which also helps to locate remarks.
- APU at Azusa Pacific University proved surprisingly unique
- FGRP at the Federated Group
- NCC at National Capacitor Corp, which became NEC
- CII at Capital Investment Incorporated
Mark out entire lines; never bother with replacing a few characters unless correcting a misspelling made today.
Replace contiguous lines
Replace entire routines when only a few old lines remain
Massive Changes
Normal maintenance changes a small percentage of the total program. For annual maintenance, keeping two years is plenty. In other words, keep the remarks and cross outs from last year. Make new cross outs for this year, and insert the new code
Somewhere between 10 and 30 percent, as changes increase, the best policy is to re-write the entire program. The old program should have remarks pointing to the new program, which should reference the old program. Obviously, the old program should go to the archive.
Several times during the last forty years, a company has adopted a new nomenclature. Semesters became terms; sales tickets became sales orders; xxx. Other times, the manager decided that all variables should have a prefix. The variable name_last became stu_last_name; account became stu_account. In another situation, the shop adopted objects for some common ideas. The result was a change in variable names; dept_name became dept.name because of the dot notation. Such changes can have mammoth effects on source code. My suggestion has been to spread the changes across the normal calendar of expected changes and not to rush to make changes. When programmers have lulls, the changes might fill the schedule.
xxxxx