Re: Object available. No source. Vax to Alpha Migration

From: Nic Clews (sendspamhere_at_[127.0.0.1)
Date: 01/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 12:49:29 +0000

Chris Sharman wrote:
>
> Colin Butcher wrote:
> > Absolutely. However, I suggest that you use the disassembled code to help
> > you do the reverse-engineering and figure out what it currently does and how
> > it does it. Remember - they may not actually know what the called routine
> > really does, or what it is supposed to be doing. It could all easily be lost
> > in the mists of time and some poor person has got to figure it all out from
> > scratch.
>
> Don't see much return in doing more than cleaning up the generated
> Macro32 code to compile. The code presumably hasn't been needed for some
> years, so the rewrite may as well be deferred, unless and until strictly
> necessary.

"Entertaining" is one word you could use to describe the observed
effects of hitherto latent timing bugs in code being 'brought to the
surface'.

"Disastrous" is another.

And this is WITH the source code!

These days, college courses and structured object programming theories,
don't really mix with the memory tight and cycle sensitive coding
practices of those who, made it up as they went along. As a rule of
thumb, the further back in time this coding was done (and the more
likely the source code has been lost), the more "ingenious" techniques
were used to compensate for hardware deficiencies.

So, do you half do a job 

-- 
Regards, Nic Clews a.k.a. Mr. CP Charges, CSC Computer Sciences
nclews at csc dot com

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