legacy

How Do You Create Test Objects For Third Party Legacy Code

I have a code base where many of the classes I implement derive from classes that are provided by other divisions of my company. Working with these other devisions often have the working relationship as though they are third party middle ware vendors. I'm trying to write test code without modifying these base classes. However, there are...

Would you use NHibernate for a project with a legacy database, which is partly out of your control?

For me the answer is currently: No, I would use iBatis, because NHibernate is a pain, when the database model and the object model are not in synch. If I don't have full control over the database I end up with a lot of work. Why do I ask? Well, first of all: I never used NHibernate. I just know it from the surface. I have read about th...

C++0x implementation guesstimates?

The C++0x standard is on its way to being complete. Until now, I've dabbled in C++, but avoided learning it thoroughly because it seems like it's missing a lot of modern features that I've been spoiled by in other languages. However, I'd be very interested in C++0x, which addresses a lot of my complaints. Any guesstimates, after the s...

Getting your head around other people's code

I'm occasionally unfortunate enough to have to make alterations to very old, poorly not documented and poorly not designed code. It often takes a long time to make a simple change because there is not much structure to the existing code and I really have to read a lot of code before I have a feel for where things would be. What I think...

What makes code legacy?

I have heard many developers refer to code as "legacy". Most of the time it is code that has been written by someone who no longer works on the project. What is it that makes code, legacy code? Update in response to: "Something handed down from an ancestor or a predecessor or from the past" http://www.thefreedictionary.com/legacy. Clear...

List all available .NET assemblies

What is the best way to list all available .NET 2.0 assemblies? An example of the list needed is the one MS Visual Studio shows when you do 'Add Reference...' in the .NET tab. I have read Visual studio uses its own directory configuration and the GAC another and .NET instalation another. Any ideas of how I can know where this directori...

Find software developers who see the light

I work in a software company which has been existence for 27 years, and, as a result, the software framework on which our applications run is all home grown, as it predated most of the standards that are commonplace now. Consequently, day to day work involves a lot of exposure to the low level details of machine and code. A lot of C wit...

How to force process isolation for an out of process COM server?

I'm writing managed code that has to interact with a vendor's COM automation server that runs out of process. I have found that this server becomes unstable if more than one client connects to it. For example, if I have managed code in process A and managed code in process B both connecting to this COM server, a single process will be ...

What percentage of existing systems are old legacy systems?

My bank account, a lot of client information, accounting, insurance and whole lot of other mission critical data is still running on mainframes and/or AS400s (iSeries?). COBOL, RPG, CICS and a number of other older technologies still dominate the mission critical core data for most Fortune 500 companies. The really big question is how ...

Continue a Classic ASP site or insist a language change?

So today I was in a meeting to assist putting together a proposal to give one of our clients on how we can improve their web site. After two hours we had a pretty hefty list of new features and resource upgrades that coupled with their latest request for a site redesign, would put us in a good position to suggest a 'rewrite' in another l...

Best framework for Unit-Testing some legacy ASP.NET 1.1 code

I have legacy asp.net 1.1 website. It has a very poor VB layered achitecture. Debugging takes about 10 minutes to run the credit card processing tests. I'd like to add some unit testing capabilities to the solution to check my changes. I was thinking about using mbunit with galleo. Will mbunit and galleo work with my .net 1.1 code...

Learning a legacy Java system

Hi All, I've been tasked with maintaining and refactoring a legacy Java system. I currently do C# and .NET, although I'm familiar with Java. The legacy system uses RMI, a client/server architecture and was designed for the 1.4 JVM. It's using for the UI (as far as I can tell), Swing and AWT. My question is this: What is the best way ...

Dot matrix fast printing with precise layout in Java

I'd like to know what practical way of constructing reports for EPSON Dot Matrix printers exists in Java. At this time, I'm having the LX300+II model to play with. I know that there are basically two ways of using this printer: As a typewriter, outputting directly raw ASCII data to the parallel port Graphical printing, with graphical ...

Is it worth keeping up on COBOL? What compilers would you recommend?

In the past, I suffered through a course on COBOL in order to get a grade. Some people have suggested that, although nasty, this language still has a lot of relevance in the job market. My question: Is it even worth keeping up on COBOL? If so, are there any FOSS compilers you recommend? Thanks ...

Language Popularity for Greenfield?

Are there any good metrics of which programming languages are most popular for greenfield development, i.e. development that is not significantly constrained by legacy code? IMHO this is the most meaningful definition of popularity, since it tells you what people are choosing when their choices are relatively unconstrained by choices ma...

Should I continue working with dead tech, or bail out now?

What do you guys think of working with dead/legacy or proprietary programming languages? After working on it for a number of years, it seems like your chances of getting to another position is almost impossible because you're not up to date with anything and it's almost a throw-away on your resume. Upsides: expert status: if you're ...

How to convert this code to LINQ?

I'm trying to write this as LINQ, Original code: For Each CurrentForm As Form In MyForms AddLink(CurrentForm.GetLink()) Next I'm a LINQ beginner, so far I'm not quite sure where to use and where not to. If in this case LINQ will do more harm then help, feel free to flame me. Edit : You can assume that there is an overload for A...

Is there a point where cost of refactoring outweighs the cost of re-writing?

We have some really shocking code touted as a next generation framework at my current place of employment. Thing is, there is only one person of this opinion and that is the guy who wrote most of it. The rest of the department are of the impression it is badly coded, a pita to debug and just a bit naff in general. The guy that wrote it...

What is the Best Practice to manage older unit test when you're debugging or adding a new feature?

Hi Guys, I'm trying to understand what's the best way to manage older unit test that doesn't really match or works anymore due to reason like bugs or logic changes in your code? Do we just skip them all by and modify them to fit the current logic? For example if those tests weren't written by you, and now you're in charge to modify the ...

Is the 'synchronized' keyword in a classic enterprise application suspicious?

I am talking about classic enterprise applications. Typically hosted in some kind of application-server or container. Nothing fancy, just entities, services, Presentation/UI and relational storage. Whenever I see the synchronized keyword (either on methods or for blocks) in such an application I get very suspicious. In my opinion this i...