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Encyclopedia > Legacy code

Legacy code is hi source code that relates to a no-longer supported or manufactured operating system or other computer technology. The term can also mean code inserted into modern software for the purpose of maintaining an older or previously supported feature — for example supporting a serial interface even though many modern systems don't have a serial port. It may also be in the form of supporting older file formats that may have been encoding in non-ASCII characters, such as EBCDIC. Image File history File links Merge-arrow. ... It has been suggested that Legacy code be merged into this article or section. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... This article is about the machine. ... A male DE-9 connector used for a serial port on a PC style computer. ... Image:ASCII fullsvg There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code) is an 8-bit character encoding (code page) used on IBM mainframe operating systems, like z/OS, OS/390, VM and VSE, as well as IBM minicomputer operating systems like OS/400 and i5/OS. It is also employed on various non-IBM...


In practice, most source code has some dependency on the platform for which it is designed—unless a programmer uses a platform-independent programming language like Java, it is hard to write a large, useful program that is totally independent of its environment. When the manufacturer upgrades or supersedes the platform, the code will no longer work without changes, and becomes legacy code. A large part of the task of a software engineer is to continually alter code to prevent this. Java language redirects here. ... Software engineering (SE) is the profession concerned with specifying, designing, developing and maintaining software applications by applying technologies and practices from computer science, project management, and other fields. ...


While the term usually refers to source code, it can occasionally be heard applied to executable code that no longer runs on a modern version of a system, or requires a compatibility layer to do so. An example would be a classic Macintosh application which will not run natively on Mac OS X, but runs inside the Classic environment, or a Win16 application running on Windows XP using the Windows on Windows feature in XP. In software engineering, a compatibility layer allows binaries for an emulated system to run on a host system. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly and thoroughly to a task that the user wishes to perform. ... Mac OS X (pronounced ) is a line of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. ... Classic, or Classic Environment, is a hardware and software abstraction layer in Mac OS X that allows applications compatible with Mac OS 9 to run on the OS X operating system. ... Windows API is a set of APIs, (application programming interfaces) available in the Microsoft Windows operating systems. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ... Windows on Windows, commonly referred to as WOW or WoW, is a name of two abstraction subsystems of Microsoft Windows operating system. ...


Modern interpretations

More recently, the software engineering community has developed other interpretations for the term legacy code. Among the most prevalent are source code inherited from someone else and source code inherited from an older version of the software. Michael Feathers' Working Effectively with Legacy Code (ISBN 0-13-117705-2) introduced a definition of legacy code as code without tests, which reflects the perspective of legacy code being difficult to work with in part due to a lack of automated regression tests. He also defined Characterization Tests to start putting legacy code under test. Software engineering (SE) is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software. ... In software engineering, software testing automated testing is that which is performed, to a greater or lesser extent, by a computer. ... Regression testing is any type of software testing which seeks to uncover regression bugs. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...


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