Applying traditional Unix tools during maintenance: an experience report

The Unix programming environment provides a rich and fairly standard set of generic tools for the development and maintenance of software. In an age of advanced software tools and environments, it is useful to see how new tools compare against an old baseline. The exercise involved performing three tasks: (1) producing summary documentation; (2) evaluating program structure; and (3) reconnoitering future maintenance tasks. Our experiences from one small exercise in maintenance suggest that simple Unix tools seem to raise the bar of excellence deceptively high