Static code analyzers for JavaScript, PHP, Python, and the Linux shell
Script Doctor
© Lead Image © Ewa Walicka, Fotolia.com
Admins daily use scripts to automate tasks, generate web content, collect and parse data, and perform many other tasks. A few sophisticated tools can tell admins where script problems lurk.
Administrators are likely to throw together a shell script quickly during the stress of everyday admin life, but sometimes it takes only a few days before the script self-destructs. Meticulous, time-consuming, and typically hectic troubleshooting commences. Thank goodness for static code analyzers.
Code analyzers examine source code for errors and typical problems, such as typos that a human is likely to overlook – from uninitialized variables to incorrectly used semicolons. Predefined test rules decide whether an error exists, and programmers can specify their own test criteria in some cases.
These code analyzers are referred to as "static" because they only see the source code; they cannot make any guesses about future performance. Some tools that perform data flow analysis and track variables through the program code can find unused or unnecessary variables.
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