Visual Expert
Visual Expert is a static program analyzer, extracting design and technical information from software source code by reverse-engineering, used by programmers for software maintenance,[1] modernization[2] or optimization.
| Developer(s) | Novalys |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 1995 |
| Written in | C# |
| Operating system | Windows |
| Available in | English, Japanese, Spanish, French |
| Type | Code analysis tools |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | https://www.visual-expert.com/ |
It is designed to parse several programming languages at the same time (PL/SQL, Transact-SQL, PowerBuilder...) and analyze cross-language dependencies, in addition to each language's source code.
Features
- Code exploration: call graphs, CRUD matrix, cross-references, dependency graphs.[3][4]
- Software documentation: a documentation generator produces technical documentation [4] and low-level design descriptions.[5]
- Code comparison: finds differences between several versions of the same code.
- Automated code review: calculates software metrics and source lines of code.[6] Finds unused objects and methods. Identifies duplicate objects. Controls naming conventions.
Usage
Visual Expert is used in several contexts:
- Change impact analysis: evaluating the consequences of a change in the code or in a database. Avoiding negative side effects when evolving a system.
- Program comprehension: helping programmers understand and maintain existing code, or modernize legacy systems. Transferring knowledge of the code, from one programmer to another.
- Software sizing: calculating the size of an application, or a piece of code, in order to estimate development efforts.
- Code review: auditing source code, in order to discover issues, such as dead code, code causing poor performances or violations of programming conventions.
Limitations
- As a static code analyzer, Visual Expert is limited to the programming languages supported by its code parsers - Oracle PL/SQL, SQL Server Transact-SQL, PowerBuilder.
- A preliminary reverse engineering is required, with a duration depending on the size of the code parsed. Users must wait for the parsing completion prior to using the features, or schedule it in advance.
- Visual Expert is based on a client/server architecture: the code analysis is running on a windows PC - preferably a server. The information extracted from the code is stored in a RDBMS, communicating with a client application installed on the programmer’s computer - no web client is available. This requires that the code, the parsers, the RDBMS and the programmers’ computers are connected to the same LAN or VPN.
History
- 1995- 1998 - Prog and Doc - Initial version distributed on the French market [7]
- 2001 - Visual Expert 4.5[5]
- 2003 - Visual Expert 5 [6]
- 2007 - Visual Expert 5.7[3][8][9]
- 2010 - Visual Expert 6.0[10]
- 2015 - Visual Expert 2015 - Server component added to schedule code analyses[11]
- 2016 - Visual Expert 2016 - New Oracle PL/SQL code parser[11]
- 2017 - Visual Expert 2017 - Code comparison, CRUD matrix, SQL Server T-SQL code parser[11]
References
- Dr Kankey, Roland D (19 October 1989). "The challenge of software maintenance costing" (PDF).
- "Essential guide to application modernisation". Computer Weekly.
- "Visual Expert for PowerBuilder". PowerBuilder Guru. 15 October 2008.
- Mikhailovsky, George. "Become familiar with a new application!". www.powerbuildertv.com.
- Green, Bill (1 September 2002). "Visual Expert v4.5 Review".
- Aumen, Bill (9 May 2005). "Visual Expert In the Real World". www.powerbuildercentral.com.
- "Prog & Doc (french page from Web Archive)". Eurelys. 7 July 1997. Archived from the original on 1997-07-07.
- Pollach, Chris (April 23, 2007). "Visual expert 5.7 released". Archived from the original on 2014-07-26.
- Armstrong, Bruce (April 27, 2007). "Visual Expert 5.7".
- "Novalys introduces Visual Expert 6.0". DBTA. 23 April 2009.
- Novalys. "Visual Expert Update List". Visual Expert.
External links
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