Monday 2 March 2009

Speaking: ACCU 2009 (Legacy Code)

I'll be speaking at the ACCU 2009 conference, in Oxford UK. The conference runs from Wednesday 22nd to Saturday 25th April 2009.

Here's the summary of my presentation:
Legacy code - learning to live with it

Legacy code. You can't live with it. You can't live without it.

Well, you can't avoid it, at least. Spend long enough in the software factory, and you'll inevitably run into other people's old code. And of course, none of this old stuff is any good. It's nothing like the high quality software you craft. Pure tripe.

Let's be honest, sometimes you might even stumble across some of your own old code, and embarrassing as it is, you have to admit that you don't know how it works, let alone how to fix it.

This presentation will look at practical strategies for working with "old" crufty code. We'll see how to:
  • start working with a completely unfamiliar codebase
  • understand old spaghetti programming
  • make correct modifications
  • prevent bad code from causing more pain in the future
It should be a lot of fun.

If you're a developer and you've never been the the ACCU conference before, then I highly recommend it. It's excellent value for money, it has a great atmosphere, and you'll learn a tonne of really useful stuff.

No comments: