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  1. #1
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    Monitoring in Real Time

    Helloo,

    I'm new to the forums, and this seemed like the best place to put this particular query even though nothing else is in here. I have a bit of a situation with the company I'm with right now, and was hoping that there are some above board means of finding the information needed to resolve the situation.

    Our company has a piece of software meant to pair with the device we sell for monitoring equipment. It actually has two, but one is designated as a "testing" software, even though it seems to run things better than the "production" software, However, that is beside the point. The person who currently "maintains" the software is... not admired by his peers (I think that's the most PC way I can put that). There is a growing concern not only among the technicians maintaining the equipment, but also from upper management that he may be introducing "bugs" into the software in order to stay relevant to the company. He will not share the source code with anyone either, which only adds fuel to the fire.

    Is there software out there that I can use to monitor the program as it's running in real time to see if there are any "stray" pieces of code that shouldn't be in there. At the very least, something that allows us to see what is really going on under the hood when the program decides to go into a 'Not Responding' state for sometimes 30-45 minutes at a time? If he's not a good programmer, and these truly are bugs in the software, then knowing when and how they present, as well as what process may be running would be invaluable information to him. If he is indeed devious in his intentions, then us knowing what is going on may help him find his way back to the straight and narrow.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  2. #2
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    Arjay is offline Moderator / EX MS MVP Power Poster
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    Can you review the code and/or control when the code is deployed?

  3. #3
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    He will not share the source code with anyone either,
    By default, copyright rests with the person who wrote it. Does his contract include a clause granting copyright of any software he develops to the company?

    If it does then the company owns the software and can do what it wants with it - including having control over the source etc etc and who can do what with it. In this case he cannot refuse to share the software with anyone to whom he is instructed by 'the company' as it's not 'his software'.

    If this clause isn't in the contract, then ownership/copyright of the software belongs to that person who developed it and he has control over what is done with that software - including sharing of the source etc. In this circumstance if that person leaves the company he can take the software with him (including the source) and stop the company from using it. If this is the case, get all developers contracts amended ASAP.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  4. #4
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    Is there software out there that I can use to monitor the program as it's running
    Yes - to some extent. There are various free sysinternals utility programs that enable monitoring of files, registry, network etc. See
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...nloads/procmon
    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sys...nloads/tcpview

    https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/ details all the utilities available.

    If the issue is network related, then consider wireshark https://www.wireshark.org/

    a piece of software meant to pair with the device we sell for monitoring equipment.
    How is it meant 'to pair'?

    He will not share the source code with anyone either
    Why not just access it on the computer on which it is stored?

    If the source code resides on a company-owned computer, then provided authorised by management, there are ways of obtaining copies of the files if he refuses access requests. Also if it resides on a company computer, then the company (senior management) can stipulate who has access to that computer (as the owner). If the software resides on a computer owned by that person - rather than the company - then this is an issue in its own right. In this case I would suggest that the person is told to move the source code to a computer owned by the company. See also my post #3.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  5. #5
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    Quote Originally Posted by 2kaud View Post
    How is it meant 'to pair'?
    It pairs to the equipment through an RS-232 serial connection.

    We will definitely be looking into the options as far as getting the source code through other means. As the days go by, he seems ever more protective of that code, so I'm growing more suspicious as to what is actually in it.

    Thank you for the suggestions though. I especially like the company computer work around for getting the source. Even if he technically has the copyright from bad contract negotiation, that will at least allow us to see what that code looks like and if there are any bugs being introduced purposely.

  6. #6
    2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    As the connection is serial rs232, it's quite easy to monitor what's happening on the serial interface. There's various serial/rs232 monitoring software available. You'll also find a 'rs232 break-out' box (with lights) helpful. This goes in series with the rs232 cable and has lights for each of the various lines. This will show the state of the various control lines (rts, dsr etc). The send/receive lines (often pins 2 & 3 but varies depending upon the type of connector) can be spliced to another computer on which the rs232 monitoring software resides. You can then see the state of the control lines and what data is passing between the systems.

    Ah - rs232. That takes me back many years!

    PS Or do you mean serial over USB - which is different?
    Last edited by 2kaud; January 12th, 2018 at 04:34 PM. Reason: PS
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  7. #7
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    will not share the source code
    What about backups? Surely backup's of the source are made and kept? What is the development environment?

    be introducing "bugs" into the software in order to stay relevant to the company
    or getting ready to leave (or be fired) to go to another company (your competitors?) with the source code.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  8. #8
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    Quote Originally Posted by 2kaud View Post
    Ah - rs232. That takes me back many years!

    PS Or do you mean serial over USB - which is different?
    No, you were correct in that it is a standard RS-232 connection. Between the components of the system they use RS-485 connections. The more recent model connects to the computer through Ethernet, but the software is able to see either connection as an input. No USB necessary here.

    We know what comes out of the system though, as we have some raw data readers and other things to ensure that all works as expected. That code isn't in question, as there are already separate offices that handle different parts of it. Plus it's coded in C, and as much as I would love to get involved with that, I would rather my crash course in C programming come from something that isn't currently making money for the company.

    We have managed to finally get the source from him, and I am now going through it all. A much more tedious process than I cared for, but I'm the only other one here with high-level programming language knowledge and time to work on it (I think that second reason is the main one I'm being asked to do it). If I do end up finding anything that looks a bit off, I'll probably post it here on this forum as a gut check for it. I doubt here (Testers and Testing) would be the best place for something like that, so where would be the better avenue for that?

  9. #9
    2kaud's Avatar
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    There are different forums for different programming languages - so post any code for advice to the forum for the language used by the code (c code goes in the c++ (non-visual c++ issues)). Which language is used? There are gurus who will be able to offer advice and guidance.
    Last edited by 2kaud; January 18th, 2018 at 05:00 AM.
    All advice is offered in good faith only. All my code is tested (unless stated explicitly otherwise) with the latest version of Microsoft Visual Studio (using the supported features of the latest standard) and is offered as examples only - not as production quality. I cannot offer advice regarding any other c/c++ compiler/IDE or incompatibilities with VS. You are ultimately responsible for the effects of your programs and the integrity of the machines they run on. Anything I post, code snippets, advice, etc is licensed as Public Domain https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ and can be used without reference or acknowledgement. Also note that I only provide advice and guidance via the forums - and not via private messages!

    C++23 Compiler: Microsoft VS2022 (17.6.5)

  10. #10
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    Re: Monitoring in Real Time

    Quote Originally Posted by Raven19528 View Post
    I have managed to finally get the source from him, and I am now going through it all.
    Great, have you checked the code into source control?
    Quote Originally Posted by Raven19528 View Post
    I doubt here (Testers and Testing) would be the best place for something like that, so where would be the better avenue for that?
    Are there any SDETs in the testing organization? If so, they should be able to read and evaluate the code.

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