Ebook: Rearchitecting Software: Source Code Comprehension and Refactoring Applied to Flight Software and Simulation

Only the source code tells the full story.

No document, no wiki, no README, no UML model; nothing will tell the story as accurately as the recipe itself. In this text, we embark in the task of reverse engineering the recipe by taking two open-source projects that grew unaware of each other and make them work together. In the process, we will create our own, artificial, little digital universes, step by step.

Software is highly malleable (hence the name), and a big part of software engineering is also about rearchitecting what exists, and not always about developing everything from scratch. There is great software out there, existing and waiting to be re-sculptured and rearchitected to gain a second or third chance. Legacy code is nothing to be afraid of; embrace it, interpret it, learn it as if you had written it yourself, and adjust it for your own needs. Software can have more than one life, and sound source code comprehension and refactoring are essential—although underrated—skills every software engineer must have.