Clean(er) Code for Large Scale Legacy Applications

Speaker: Arne Mertz

Audience level: Beginner | Intermediate | Advanced

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Due to the complexity of the language and the presence of some low-level language features, "Clean C++" seems to be an oxymoron for many developers. Especially in enterprise land, C++ applications tend to have large code bases grown over several years. Those legacy code bases tend to suffer from underdeveloped or missing unit and integration tests. Development teams maintaining such code bases resign over time and adopt "don't touch it, you'll break it" policies. 
Nevertheless, it is possible to write clean C++, to at refactor even large C++ code bases as needed and cover critical parts with automated tests. The key elements to successfully regain control over code quality are a dedicated team and a set of properly sized and prioritized steps towards that goal.