Complex, Large Project Coding

[jecottrell]

I believe I've finally reached a cranial limitation on project size. I'm up to 11,000 lines (or so the compiler says) and 6 or 7 includes and I can't keep a running tab on what I'm doing and where, etc.

What do the pros use for organization, tracking, etc. Is there a text that presents an approach for project management?

I think most of the problem may have to do with my coding technique... sit in front of the computer and write from scratch, with little if any pre-planning or organization (spaghetti code at its best.)

I understand the basics of either top down or bottom up. But, there's got to be a better way to keep organized.

Thanks,

John

[PCM programmer]

1. Use some variation of Hungarian notation so you can identify the data
type and the scope of your variables just by looking at them. This will
prevent a lot of mistakes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_Notation

2. Use a lint program to find coding errors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lint_%28software%29

[Guest]

Yep - it's just so darn fun to sit down and code! Who needs to think. :-)

Steve McConnell's book Code Complete is the best book ever written on code as far as I have found.

Clearly this is a universal problem (check out the broken updates at CCS)

I also have a program that just went through a revision and I found myself qualifying some data, the same data, in three different ways! Yikes! What was I thinking?! Well I was working on it on and off and I forgot what I had done.

About the only thing I can do to make this situation better is to make include files of canned routines - that I will not touch - then I write a users guide that I can refer to when I need one of those functions.

This is encapsulation and is what Active X, COM and DLL's were all about. Repositories of known working code that don't change (except for bug fixing).

You can also study "refactoring" as a method - this can be a useful way to think about the inevitable - re-coding cuz things got out of hand.

Another problem with maintaining code is - well it grows as it ages - people want this feature and that feature or they don't want this special case, etc. This leads to all sorts of 'if-then-else' statements in the code - even if the maintenance was very well done this happens, because it grows just one feature at a time and this is the fastest way to add or delete a feature.

Eventually you just have to say enough and the - next feature is going to require a large chunk of time to 'refactor' the code to make it understandable again. The boss won't like the extra time, but he will be caught like a Racoon washing a 'shinny object' in a stream when you use big words like re-factoring! ;-)

Well hang in there - we all do this - you just have to decide when it's time to, well.... Start Refactoring.....

;-0

HTH - Steve (Been there, done that) H.

[jecottrell]

PCM,

Thanks, I'd never heard of Lint. I'm going to spend some time poking around on the links. What Lint software do you use/recommend?

I'd gotten use to Hungarian in VB, mainly because it is usually included in the instructional material. But I have gotten away from it in C. I think I'll make a point to start using it again.



Steve,

I'll get my copy of Code Complete out and dust it off and look through it again. I've heard the term refactoring, but never thought of it as a particular method. I'll do some research.



Thanks,

John



EDIT:

I found your post regarding LINT. Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[tavioman]

I alwayas use a third party IDE. In fact I use Micr***t Visual Studio as IDE.
You can organize code the best with this IDE. The only draw back is the compiler output format, that is not compatible with VS IDE. Maybe CCS will think on the format posibilities of the output of their compiler.
Hi-Tech's compiler on the other hand has an output that you can format as you wish.

[kender]

[tavioman]

Hi.
I have folowed this thread:

http://www.ccsinfo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=29216&highlight=nmake

For debug I use Proteus, I don't use hardware debug... For this purpose I'm using a lot of printf in the software.