Code Spelunking Redux

George V. Neville-Neil, Consultant

It has been five years since I first wrote about code spelunking, ⁸ and though systems continue to grow in size and scope, the tools we use to understand those systems are not growing at the same rate. In fact, I believe we are steadily losing ground. So why should we go over the same ground again? Is this subject important enough to warrant two articles in five years? I believe it is.

The oft-quoted Moore’s law about the increasing power of computers actually works against the code spelunker. The more powerful computers become, the more we demand that they do, which increases the complexity of the software that runs on them. Processor speeds increase, and that

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ACM QUEUE November/December 2008 27