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K Gallagher, D Wallace, Frederick E. Boland Jr., D W. Binkley, James R. Lyle
Abstract
The Surgeon's Assistant is a tool for the maintainers of ANSI C programs. Using the Surgeon's Assistant, a software maintainer (a surgeon) can isolate program components for change; assess the impact of contemplated changes on components that are to remain unchanged; design, code and test the modifications so that all effects have no impact on the unchanging part. The software surgery process has four parts: build collections of decompositions using a preprocessor; combine and inspect decompositions using a graphical interface; edit the source using extensions to emacs; and compile and test within the Unix environment.
Gallagher, K.
, Wallace, D.
, Boland, F.
, Binkley, D.
and Lyle, J.
(1998),
The Surgeon's Assistant, Journal of Software Maintenance
(Accessed October 17, 2025)