Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!CALSTATE.BITNET!PAAAAAR
From: PAAAAAR@CALSTATE.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.software-eng
Subject: Re: Reverse Engineering Info Wanted
Message-ID: <8911101947.AA18124@mwunix.mitre.org>
Date: 10 Nov 89 19:47:14 GMT
Sender: daemon@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU
Organization: The MITRE Corp., Washington, D.C.
Lines: 49


Torkil Hammer(2 Nov 89) quoted a posting I have not received:

>>   I am working on my MS in Software Development & Management at
>>Rochester Institute of Technology.  I am doing research on Software
>>Maintenance, and am looking for some info....
>
>>Specifically, I'd like to know what tools have been used and with
>>what level of success to reverse-engineer old, unstructured, nightmare-
>>to-maintain code.

The Oxford Z group are using or have used the Z language to reverse engineer
IBM CICS operating system. How does that fit?
See "Properties of Z Specifications", JCP Woodcock pages 43-54 of
"Sofware Engineering Notes", An Informal Newsletter of the
SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING of the Association for
Computing Machinary.(SIGSOFT) Vol 14, Number 5, Jul 1989.

Torkil Hammer continued:
> What I have done is to get information about what the code is supposed
> to do.  This type of code is usually poorly documented, but asking
> around gives surprisingly good answers.  Next, to get it up and running
> and try various inputs to confirm theories.  At this point I open the
> lid on the garbage can and begin to peek into subroutines to confirm
> more theories and also to figure out whether I have the full story.
This is typical...
I recall one project, however, where a large DP system was being
re-engineered. The new team was constructing a set of "All-Path"
tests for the new version.  Regularly analysts and designers
could not tell the new team what the system was supposed to do
on a given set of data and had to run the old one to find out ...

> Sorry, no hitech sounding 'tools', just plain work.  Won't do for a
> master's thesis.
Try these titles:
1. A Formal Model of the Software Re-engineering Process.
2. Software Re-Engineering: A Problem of Technology Transfer
3. Software Re-Engineering as an Exemplar of the Scientific Method
-------------------------------------------------------------
Richard J. Botting,  Department of computer science,
California State University, San Bernardino,
5500 State University Parkway, San Bernardino CA 92407
PAAAAAR@CCS.CSUSCC.CALSTATE
paaaaar@calstate.bitnet
PAAAAAR%CALSTATE.BITNET@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU

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Disclaimer: These ideas are plausibly deniable by most organisations.
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