From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.5-pre1 (2020-06-20) on ip-172-31-74-118.ec2.internal X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.0 required=3.0 tests=BAYES_20 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.5-pre1 Date: 19 May 93 15:20:19 GMT From: cis.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!howland. reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!williams.sps.mot .com!alanw@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Alan R. Weiss) Subject: Re: McCabe package for Ada? Message-ID: List-Id: In article <1tbvt4$2m3@fido.asd.sgi.com> jackr@dblues.wpd.sgi.com (John Jack Re penning) writes: > >In article , alanw@williams.sps.mot.com writes : > >> Mark asks a REALLY good question: just what the $%^&* is McCabe's >> number useful for? I've found the following uses: >> ... >> 2. Candidates for rewrites > >Careful with that approach: if it's recently written, or if it's >causing problems, you might want to rewrite it. But if it ain't >presently broke, no _way_ do you want to fix this one: you probably >haven't a *clue* what it really does, or how. Lemme get this straight: you have some code. Its your code. The author doesn't remember what it does, or has long since gone off to ostensibly greener pastures. You don't have a clue what it does. So, you ignore it. Hmmmmm ..... >I've encountered (in a former job) high cyclomatic modules with an >established history of more-or-less working, where we decided the best >approach was to wall the thing off and avoid looking at it - even to >the extent of some fairly complex head-standing to work around its >idiosyncracies. We took that course, because our first reaction was >to rewrite it, and that was an utter disaster (thank heaven for >version control!). Well, hell, Jack, I didn't say re-write the thing NOW. But sure as hell if you got some crusty ol' code that seems to work but has McCabe numbers way up there (like, say 100 or above), you are going to have to deal with it SOME DAY. Unless you are working in a completely stagnant world (which I know you're not -- heh heh). Hell yes, if you're not using rcs or cvs or something for source code control, you shouldn't even be bothering with McCabe or much of anything. You should go back to your sandbox and play with the nice dump truck ..... :-) > >Jack Repenning M/S 1-875 jackr@wpd.sgi.com >Silicon Graphics, Inc. x3-3027 Off:(415) 390-3027 >Visual Magic Division Fax:(415) 390-6056 Clearly SGI is NOT one of these places. -- _ Alan R. Weiss Motorola-Semiconductor Products Sector, RISC Software _| ~-. 6501 William Cannon Dr. West, MD-OE112, Austin, Texas USA 78735 \, *_} alanw@pets.sps.mot.com or alanw@maze.sps.mot.com| Voi: 512-891-6003 \( DISCLAIMER: I do not speak for Motorola, Inc. | Fax: 512-891-3798 "Where there is no vision, people perish" - Proverbs 29:18