0

We outsourced the development of Blackberry 5, 6, and 7 apps. Please bare in mind that I have absolutely no knowledge of Blackberry development at all.

Development is complete, and they have sent us the source code - a collection of .cod, .csl, .cso, .debug, .jad and .rapc files.

I would at least like to review the code in terms of it's consistency and standards - somewhat a measure of the quality. Clean code is not something specific to any one platform.

I have tried to open each of these files in notepad, but with no source code found.

Please advise me on what I need before I go pay them a visit.

Dave New
  • 38,496
  • 59
  • 215
  • 394
  • 1
    aks them to give the full project(will include .java files(in src folder) and res folder(will contains the resource files)). – Rince Thomas Dec 03 '13 at 06:55
  • You really knew enough about BlackBerry to tag this question with `blackberry-jde`, but didn't know that the source code is identified in files with the `.java` extension? Hmmm. If this is a legitimate inquiry, I'd also recommend avoiding using notepad to inspect code. Eclipse is a widely-used and supported tool for BlackBerry development, and makes code review vastly easier than a text editor ... it's free, too, if that's the issue. – Nate Dec 04 '13 at 06:02
  • @Nate: I was pretty sure that I would need .java files, but I wasn't 100% sure. I would rather confirm this with experienced users instead of making uninformed decisions. – Dave New Dec 04 '13 at 06:09
  • Do they not have Google where you live? I'm generally pretty forgiving in terms of not downvoting, or voting to close questions. But this one really shows absolutely zero research effort at all. *Normally*, questions like that are discouraged on Stack Overflow. – Nate Dec 04 '13 at 06:14
  • @Nate: I did Google, which is why I got close but still wasn't 100%. I don't know about every third-party code/framework wrapper available for BB development. I posted a question because I needed to be informed about something I wasn't completely sure of. The impact of me accusing our partner of not having provided source code is, albeit very low, a risk to our relationship. StackOverflow is community-driven. Just vote to close my question if you feel so strongly about it. – Dave New Dec 04 '13 at 06:44

1 Answers1

3

The files you have been given are the files that are created as part of the build of your project and the resultant executable files. There is no source included here.

In a BB OS Build, regardless of the development environment used, the Java source files will all have the suffix .java, and the assets (images etc.) will have a suffix appropriate to the asset (like .png). If you don't see these file suffixes, then you have not been given the actual source. You should be able to view the java files using Notepad, the other files will open in an appropriate application (like paint).

To get the complete source, you should just ask the full 'project' files for your development. This will be a directory with a number of sub directories. The actual names used and the structure will depend on the development tool. If your developer is using Eclipse, then the two important directories are called src for source and res (resources) for the assets. If they are using another development environment, then the directories might have different names. So you should ask them what development environment they are using too.

Two other points:

1) If you are paying for this development and wish to review the code, but are not familiar with Java, then I would recommend that you pay someone to review the code who has knowledge of BB Java. There are two reasons for this: (a) you will not be able to form a judgement on the appropriateness of the code without some understanding of Java, and (b) you will not understand if the correct BB Java approaches have been used.
You need to be cautious about this, because programmers will always find fault in other developer's code. The question is how significant the faults are.

2) Some developers might be wary of giving source to their client while some payment is outstanding.

Peter Strange
  • 2,640
  • 11
  • 11
  • Thanks for the answer. I know that I do not have the necessary knowledge to judge the actual BB 'framework' stuff (as I know nothing about it), but I will be able to tell if they take any care in the quality of their code (looking from a readability point of view). There is a correlation between writing self-documenting and readable code and the quality of the actual product. Not to say that clean code = great software or visa verse, but a relationship most definitely exists. – Dave New Dec 03 '13 at 13:05
  • @davenewza A very clean looking good with terrible algorithms and implementation logics can pass your test and still be so bad. Don't judge based on how it looks. – Hanky Panky Dec 05 '13 at 13:44