PRQA Launches QA•C/QA•C++ Legacy Mode for managing the quality of legacy code

The PRQA solution incorporates several facets, allowing developers to focus on and quickly resolve the quality and bug issues in new code, while gaining access to legacy software. Precise diagnostic messaging is applied to source and common header files, allowing the accurate detection of source file differences between legacy and current versions. Sophisticated de-duplication and matching of these diagnostics then presents only relevant warnings.

Legacy code is a term referring to modules of older code, difficult to maintain and usually critical to the application. It presents difficult problems for developers, because while it may have brittle implementation, it nonetheless has proven to work in its original purpose. The challenge arises when trying to re-use such modules, often in a new and expanded context.

In addition to the precise matching of diagnostic output between ‘before’ and ‘after’ code versions, the solution includes powerful presentation of diagnostics in the PRQA Message Browser, the ability to interactively apply further diagnostic suppression, and the ability to preserve visibility of “hot-spot” diagnostics that should always be fixed. Through QA•C/QA•C++ Legacy Mode, software professionals are now offered a comprehensive solution for the careful resolution of legacy bugs.

Legacy software represents a significant investment and valuable intellectual property for companies, but it is only when subjected to comprehensive and sophisticated code analysis that the true susceptibilities of legacy code are revealed. A small example of the extensive range of issues exposed from the re-use of legacy code includes: conversions that work, but only when the data values remain in a safe range; logical tests that always give a true answer, implying code that is not exercised; the various problems associated with the use of pointers or array bounds.