[TxMt] Re: Reading Code?

[Steve King]

Mathieu Godart wrote:
> I haven't found a better tool that /cscope/ for C code. Once I tried
> to dive into the mysterious world of code explorer software, but I
> quickly gave up. Nothing is as good as a text editor and a tag program
> (maybe Doxygen can help a bit, especially for oo source code).

Many moons ago I found a C editor which parsed the code and generated a
dynamic flowchart on-the-fly.  The code and chart were displayed
side-by-side. When you changed the code and the flowchart changed
immediately. (You may also have been able to manipulate the flow chart
and have it change the code; this was probably 10 years or so ago and my
memory isn't what it used to be...) I didn't find it all that useful for
writing new code, but it was fantastic for reverse-engineering old
existing code.  Unfortunately it was god-awful expensive, something like
$1000 or more per seat. I couldn't justify that kind of cash, so I gave
it up after the trial period.

If someone wanted to write a free code analyzer which produced a
flowchart as a Visio or OmniGraffle diagram, I'd happily use it!

-- 
Steve King
Sr. Software Engineer
Arbor Networks
+1 734 821 1461
www.arbornetworks.com <http://www.arbornetworks.com/>