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Software archaeology

Software archaeology or source code archeology is the study of poorly documented or undocumented legacy software implementations, as part of software maintenance.{{cite web |first=Gregorio |last=Robles |first2=Jesus M. |last2=Gonzalez-Barahona |first3=Israel |last3=Herraiz |title=An Empirical Approach to Software Archaeology |date=2005 |work=Poster Proceedings of the International Conference on Software Maintenance |url=http://herraiz.org/papers/english/icsm05short.pdf}}{{cite web |author-link=Scott Ambler |first=Scott W. |last=Ambler |title=Agile Legacy System Analysis and Integration Modeling |publisher=agilemodeling.com |url=http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/agileLegacyIntegrationModeling.htm |quote=Without accurate documentation, or access to knowledgeable people, your last resort may be to analyze the source code for the legacy system... This effort is often referred to as software archaeology. |access-date=2010-08-20}} Software archaeology, named by analogy with archaeology,{{cite journal |first=Bryon |last=Moyer |title=Software Archeology: Modernizing Old Systems |journal=Embedded Technology Journal |date=4 March 2009 |url=http://adm.omg.org/docs/Software_Archeology_4-Mar-2009.pdf}} includes the reverse engineering of software modules, and the application of a variety of tools and processes for extracting and understanding program structure and recovering design information.{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Hopkins |first2=Kevin |last2=Jenkins |title=Eating the IT Elephant: Moving from greenfield development to brownfield |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-13-713012-2 |page=93 |chapter=5. The Mythical Metaman |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GYvP0u2k2uMC&pg=PA93}} Software archaeology may reveal dysfunctional team processes which have produced poorly designed or even unused software modules, and in some cases deliberately obfuscatory code may be found.{{cite book |author-link=Diomidis Spinellis |first=Diomidis |last=Spinellis |first2=Georgios |last2=Gousios |title=Beautiful Architecture |publisher=O'Reilly |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-596-51798-4 |page=29 |chapter=2. A Tale of Two Systems § Lack of Cohesion |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h34pwy005nYC&pg=PA29}} The term has been in use for decades.An early discussion is {{cite journal |first=Judith E. |last=Grass |title=Object-Oriented Design Archaeology with CIA++ |journal=Computing Systems |volume=5 |issue=1 |date=Winter 1992 |url=http://www.usenix.org/publications/compsystems/1992/win_grass.pdf}}

Software archaeology has continued to be a topic of discussion at more recent software engineering conferences.For example, the {{cite web |title=32nd ACM/IEEE International Conference on Software Engineering |date=May 2010 |url=http://portal.acm.org/toc.cfm?id=1806799}}.

Techniques

A workshop on Software Archaeology at the 2001 OOPSLA (Object-Oriented Programming, Systems, Languages & Applications) conference identified the following software archaeology techniques, some of which are specific to object-oriented programming:{{cite journal |author-link=Andy Hunt (author) |first=Andy |last=Hunt |author2-link=Dave Thomas (programmer) |first2=Dave |last2=Thomas |title=Software Archaeology |journal=IEEE Software |volume=19 |issue=2 |pages=20–22 |date=March–April 2002 |doi=10.1109/52.991327 |url=http://media.pragprog.com/articles/mar_02_archeology.pdf}}

More generally, Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas note the importance of version control, dependency management, text indexing tools such as GLIMPSE and SWISH-E, and "[drawing] a map as you begin exploring."

Like true archaeology, software archaeology involves investigative work to understand the thought processes of one's predecessors. At the OOPSLA workshop, Ward Cunningham suggested a synoptic signature analysis technique which gave an overall "feel" for a program by showing only punctuation, such as semicolons and curly braces.{{cite web |author-link=Ward Cunningham |first=Ward |last=Cunningham |title=Signature Survey: A Method for Browsing Unfamiliar Code |date=2001 |work=Workshop Position Statement, Software Archeology: Understanding Large Systems, OOPSLA 2001 |url=http://c2.com/doc/SignatureSurvey/}} In the same vein, Cunningham has suggested viewing programs in 2 point font in order to understand the overall structure.{{cite web |first=John D. |last=Cook |title=Software Archeology |date=10 November 2009 |work=The Endeavour |url=http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2009/11/10/oftware-archeology/}} Another technique identified at the workshop was the use of aspect-oriented programming tools such as AspectJ to systematically introduce tracing code without directly editing the legacy program.

Network and temporal analysis techniques can reveal the patterns of collaborative activity by the developers of legacy software, which in turn may shed light on the strengths and weaknesses of the software artifacts produced.{{cite book |first=Cleidson |last=de Souza |first2=Jon |last2=Froehlich |first3=Paul |last3=Dourish |chapter=Seeking the Source: Software Source Code as a Social and Technical Artifact |chapter-url=http://www.dourish.com/publications/2005/DeSouzaFroehlichDourish-SeekingSource-GROUP.pdf |title=Proceedings of the 2005 International ACM SIGGROUP Conference on Supporting Group Work |year=2005 |isbn=1595932232 |pages=197–206 |doi=10.1145/1099203.1099239}}

{{anchor|DataArchaeology}}

Michael Rozlog of Embarcadero Technologies has described software archaeology as a six-step process which enables programmers to answer questions such as "What have I just inherited?" and "Where are the scary sections of the code?"{{cite web |first=Michael |last=Rozlog |title=Software Archeology: What Is It and Why Should Java Developers Care? |date=28 January 2008 |publisher=java.sys-con.com |url=http://java.sys-con.com/node/487614}} These steps, similar to those identified by the OOPSLA workshop, include using visualization to obtain a visual representation of the program's design, using software metrics to look for design and style violations, using unit testing and profiling to look for bugs and performance bottlenecks, and assembling design information recovered by the process. Software archaeology can also be a service provided to programmers by external consultants.{{cite web |first=Simon |last=Sharwood |title=Raiders of the Lost Code |date=3 November 2004 |publisher=ZDNet |url=https://www.zdnet.com/article/raiders-of-the-lost-code/ }}

In popular culture

The profession of "programmer–archaeologist" features prominently in Vernor Vinge's 1999 sci-fi novel A Deepness in the Sky. {{cite web |first=Gareth |last=Rees |title=Software archaeology and technical debt |date=2013-06-12 |url=http://garethrees.org/2013/06/12/archaeology/}}

See also

  • {{annotated link|Software architecture recovery}}
  • {{annotated link|Code refactoring}}
  • {{annotated link|Retrocomputing}}
  • {{annotated link|Software brittleness}}
  • {{annotated link|Software rot}}
  • {{annotated link|Software entropy}}
  • {{annotated link|Abandonware}}

References

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External links

  • {{cite web |title=Position papers |work=OOPSLA 2001 Workshop on Software Archeology: Understanding Large Systems |url=http://www.visibleworkings.com/archeology/position-papers.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100612232147/http://www.visibleworkings.com/archeology/position-papers.html|archive-date= 2010-06-12}}
  • {{cite web |title=Writing code, reading code and software archeology |date=23 September 2009 |work=Once More into the Code |publisher=Computerworld |url=http://blogs.computerworld.com/14787/writing_code_reading_code_and_software_archeology |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110129093226/http://blogs.computerworld.com/14787/writing_code_reading_code_and_software_archeology |archive-date=2011-01-29 }}
  • {{cite web |first=Michael |last=Rozlog |title=How To Apply Software Archeology To Your Development Process |date=13 March 2008 |url=http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/sub/attachments/How_to_apply_Software_Archeology_to_your_development_process.pdf}}
  • {{cite podcast |url=http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2008/content_include/podcast/oopsla200808.mp3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926234101/http://www.oopsla.org/oopsla2008/content_include/podcast/oopsla200808.mp3 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2011-09-26 |title=OOPSLA 2008 Podcast with Grady Booch on software archaeology and related topics |date=2008 }}

{{Software engineering}}

Category:Computer jargon

Category:Software maintenance