Several methods have recently been proposed to aid in feature location, notably the Software Reconnaissance method, which uses dynamic analysis of traces of execution, and the Dependency Graph method which involves static tracing of calling and data flow relationships in the program's dependency graph.
Most studies performed so far on these methods have used relatively modern C code. However there is a large body of existing legacy software in Fortran and similar languages which is often much more poorly structured.
This paper describes a case study to locate two features in a sample of poorly structured legacy Fortran code. Both methods were applied to locate the features, along with the well known "grep" text search method for comparison.
Both the Software Reconnaissance and Dependency Graph methods located both features, although some difficulties were encountered and adaptations were needed due to the very tangled nature of the code. The "grep" search method worked well for one of the two features, but was ineffective for the second, more complex case.
This paper appeared in the Journal of Systems and Software, Vol 65 (2003) pp. 105-114
This work was supported by the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under grant number F49620-99-1-0057.
For further information contact Norman Wilde